


Until They Break

by pulveremcomedesligulas (tayrs10), toinfinityandisengard



Series: Ahkajir Chronicles [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, But Not Anytime Soon, M/M, Minor Character Death, Nonbinary Bokuto Koutarou, There's a war so there's going to be violence, everyone has powers, everyone is military, like they’ll happen eventually, relationships are all slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2019-01-04 10:52:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 41,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12167373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tayrs10/pseuds/pulveremcomedesligulas, https://archiveofourown.org/users/toinfinityandisengard/pseuds/toinfinityandisengard
Summary: Oikawa looked up and blinked.Iwaizumi was standing there, hand outreached.“You’re strong, you know,” he said. “Strongest person I’ve ever met.”A memory. This was a memory. But Oikawa didn’t recognize where it was from - when it had happened.“You can do this, Tooru,” Iwaizumi said. “I know you can.”“But, everyone believes I’m weak,” Oikawa argued.“Then prove to them you aren’t.”





	1. Reunions

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally the first draft for an original piece of writing, but since it was discarded, we decided to make it into a fic! Please enjoy!

The summons arrived early that morning. Yahaba was walking to his first training session when a senior drill leader, Hanamaki, stopped him in the hallway. The grim set of his mouth instantly put Yahaba on edge as he nodded at him over the heads of the others in the hallway.

“Yahaba,” he put a hand on his shoulder, speaking low, “Commander Washijo has requested to see you.”

A bolt of anxiety shot through Yahaba, but he kept his back straight and his pace steady as he made his way to the Commander’s office. His mind was racing, trying, and failing, to supply a reason for the summons. Not once in his three years at the Academy had he been summoned by the Commander. Very few ever were. 

After reaching the top of the staircase and walking down the solitary hallway at the top of it, they stood before a massive wooden door, with the name COMMANDER WASHIJO TANJI emblazoned on the top of the frame. Hanamaki reached forward and pulled the door open, standing back to let Yahaba in. He met Yahaba’s eyes, and gave him a small nod. Yahaba nodded tightly back, unsure of what he was walking into. 

As Yahaba stepped into the room he took a deep breath, and cast his gaze around the room, allowing his other senses to fill in the blanks that his eyes were unable to detect. Commander Washijo wasn’t in the room, but he wasn’t alone either.

Directly in front of him, sitting on a couch in front of the Commander’s large desk, was a soldier who looked to be Yahaba’s age, his black spiky hair shining as he turned to look at him, piercing green eyes boring into his. Yahaba stared back, and lifted an eyebrow, an exasperated huff leaving his mouth.

“Iwaizumi Hajime?” 

Iwaizumi nodded at him, but didn’t deign to say anything, instead turning his gaze back to the drill manual in his hands. 

_Typical_ , Yahaba thought. Iwaizumi had graduated from the academy last year, and now he guessed he was training to be a drill leader or a future Commander. Yahaba had grown up in the same town as him when they were younger, and had worked with him on a few projects in the past years, and while he was a pretty decent guy, he wasn't particularly one of Yahaba’s favorite people.

Yahaba looked to the other occupant of the room who was standing in front of a wall of books to his right, and who was already looking at him as he met his eyes.

 _I know those eyes_.

A shining green-gray, as clear and deep as the ocean, and as bold as the color on the shirt he wore, the light blue marking him as an Intelligence Gathering Specialist, or IGS. Yahaba frowned as he smirked at him. 

Hanamaki let out a cough behind Yahaba. “The Commander will be with you shortly,” He turned and left, shutting the door and leaving Yahaba in a state of extreme confusion.

He turned back to face the guy at the bookshelf, watching as he tucked back a strand of curly black hair.

“Do I know you?”

His smirk grew wider to reveal gleaming white fangs. Yahaba tried not to be surprised at the sight, but it had been years since he had seen a pala - a race of people that descended from a mixing of Kakja and Kaswe. Iwaizumi let out snort from his place on the couch.

The guy shot a glare at Iwaizumi and turned back to Yahaba.

“No I don’t suppose you do,” his voice sent another shot down Yahaba’s spine, but he shook it off as he continued. “But I know you.” 

_What the hell did that mean?_ But before Yahaba could give voice to the confusion roiling in him, Iwaizumi spoke.

“We’re here for a mission briefing,” he shook his head. “Were you not told anything?”

Yahaba simply shook his head. 

“Don't feel bad. I was only told about it last night, and the only information I was given was who was to be on our team,” the other guy said, replacing a book he’d taken off the shelf. 

“Is there going to be more?” Yahaba asked.

“Just one. A power-combat specialist. His squad is currently doing a field exercise. Washijo went to retrieve him.” 

Before Yahaba could reply, the door swung open as Commander Washijo strode through. When Yahaba saw the person that followed - when his senses registered what he smelled and tasted in the air around him - his heart stopped clean in his chest.

The newcomer was tall with a slender, muscular build. His scent was one of a bright ocean day, a mix of salt and fresh air, but layered below that was one that made every fiber of Yahaba’s being ache. Home. He smelled of home. Delicately pointed ears peaked out from under fluffy brown hair Startling brown eyes met Yahaba’s, and it was like a bolt of electricity running down his spine. 

“Oikawa?” Yahaba asked in disbelief.

Oikawa turned towards him, his eyes blazing angrily at the recognition of Yahaba’s voice. Before Yahaba could say anything else, however, he was thrown across the room and into the bookshelf. His back pressed painfully into the shelves as he was held with his feet a good foot above the floor. The odd thing was though that there was no one holding him there, nor had anyone actually touched him when he had been thrown across the room. Yahaba looked at Oikawa in disbelief as he glared at him from where he was still standing in the doorway. His arm was outstretched in Yahaba’s direction, his hand positioned as if he were tightly gripping someone’s shoulder.

“Please, Oikawa-kun, let him down,” Commander Washijo said calmly from his side.

Oikawa dutifully dropped his arm, and Yahaba with it. Yahaba barely managed a partially graceful landing on his feet in a crouch. He took a few seconds to regain composure over his surprise of seeing Oikawa before standing back up.

“I take it no one gave you a warning that Oikawa and you will have to work together, did they?” Commander Washijo asked. 

Yahaba turned to him and shook his head.

“No sir. I haven’t been given much information about this mission at all, except from what he mentioned,” Yahaba explained, gesturing to curly haired guy at the bookshelf. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I got your name...”

“No, you didn’t. I haven’t introduced myself yet.” He stuck out his hand, which Yahaba took. “First Zeta Akaashi Keiji, IGS. Undeveloped.”

 _Akaashi_. So it was him. He had grown up in the same town as Yahaba. He’d known him since he was young, but like Iwaizumi, hadn’t seen her in nearly seven years. Yahaba didn’t really have a reason to feel nostalgic about what few childhood memories he had, so this feeling now was strange and even unwelcome.  
Yahaba didn’t reveal any of those thoughts though. Instead, he raised an eyebrow at Akaashi’s blunt introduction, complete with ranking, specialization, and power. He figured that it wouldn’t hurt to follow suit.

“Second Kappa Yahaba Shigeru, Situational Specialist. Elementest,” he replied.

Akaashi smirked, most likely having already guessed it was Yahaba before turning to the other two. “I suppose you already know them,” he said.

Yahaba glanced at Oikawa, who was refusing to meet my eye.

“Sort of,” he answered. “It’s been a long time since I’ve really talked to either of them. I worked a little with Iwaizumi last year, but I haven’t seen Oikawa in well… in seven years.” Yahaba paused for a second, gathering himself. “It’s good to see you again Tooru.”

Oikawa's head shot up and he glared at Yahaba. He was scared he would throw him into a wall again, but instead he slowly walked over and stretched his hand over the couch between the two of them. Yahaba reluctantly took it, studying his expression for any sort of tell. He gave none, of course.

“First Kappa Oikawa Tooru, PCS. Telekinetic,” he said while giving Yahaba’s hand a quick shake before adding: “I wish I could say the same, Yahaba.” Then he turned on his heels and walked back to his position on the opposite couch, where Iwaizumi had just left to follow his lead of shaking Yahaba’s hand.

“Delta Iwaizumi Hajime, Officer Recruit. Shape-shifter,”

As Iwaizumi walked back to his seat, Commander Washijo spoke up from behind his desk.

“Now, if you are all acquainted,” he said, “Or I suppose, in your case, reacquainted, come forward.”

They all quickly moved to stand in front of his desk. Iwaizumi and Akaashi expertly arranged it to where they stood in the middle—between Oikawa and Yahaba. How they managed that without even speaking didn’t even surprise Yahaba.

“I’m sure you have all come to you own conclusions as to why you are here,” Washijo began. “And I’m sure you’ve all guessed correctly that you are here because the four of you have been chosen as a team for a very special mission.”

“What is that mission, sir?” Oikawa asked boldly.

Washijo fixed him with a look for a second before scanning each of them.

“It’s a specific reconnaissance mission. From what we know, there is a basecamp for the konna about a three-day journey from here. Your job is to confirm the exact location of this camp, and gather as much information that you can about their numbers and how big of a threat they would pose if they were to attack.”

“Will we need to infiltrate the borders of the camp, sir?” Akaashi asked.

The Commander shook his head. “Not if you don’t have to. This mission is dangerous enough for a first mission without having to infiltrate a major Konna basecamp. No you just need to get the numbers and get out.”

Yahaba frowned slightly. Something about this didn’t set right with him. “Sir, if this mission is so dangerous, then why were we chosen to go?”

His eyes didn’t leave the Commander, but he could feel the other three looking at him. He suspected Akaashi giving him a shocked/partially confused glance mixed with agreement. Iwaizumi was probably wearing a suspicious expression at why he would be asking something like that combined also with a undertone of why he didn’t think of it first. Oikawa, of course, would be glaring at him with raging hatred and supreme annoyance.

Commander Washijo didn’t even really seem to have time to consider Yahaba’s question before answering.

“The other Commanders and I all believe you four are more than capable of doing extraordinarily well on this mission. All four of you are the top of your respective specialties, which also happen to be the specialties we need most for this mission. It only seems right to allow you to be able to prove yourselves worthy of graduation—or in Iwaizumi-kun’s case, prove himself worthy of leading more dangerous missions in the future.”

Iwaizumi looked pretty content with that and Yahaba could tell Akaashi and Oikawa were pretty eager about the possibility of graduation. Yahaba nodded in response, but he still wasn’t satisfied. There had to be a reason that the four of them were chosen for this mission other than the fact that they were a good fit. Most people would call it a coincidence, but Yahaba wasn’t really one to believe in things like that.

“Akaashi-kun, I’ve sent further details to your brother. Today you will travel to where he is stationed in the Rymeer territory. He’ll provide you with further instructions as well as supplies. We’ll provide you with transportation to get as far as your brother’s house.”

He paused for a brief moment while looking each of them in the eye, meeting Iwaizumi’s gaze last.

“Iwaizumi-kun, you of course are going to be the mission leader for this mission. Akaashi-kun, because you are the IGS as well as the second highest ranking, you will be second in command. I’m also charging you with the responsibility of gathering the information we need once you reach your destination. Oikawa-kun and Yahaba-kun, as the designated combatants for this mission, I trust you two will cooperate? And also listen to Iwaizumi and Akaashi’s orders?”

Yahaba nodded and spared a glance at Oikawa. At the same time he shot a glare at Yahaba. This would be fun.

“Good,” Washijo said. “The two of you will be more than vital in whatever struggles you may come across. Now go and pack. You will need to leave promptly at sixteen-hundred hours.”  
….  
Rymeer was located downriver from the Academy, with the easiest way to get there being to take a ferry. The easiest way to get to the ferry was riding horses for twenty minutes across the Academy’s training fields.

They had been on the river for three hours before Akaashi came back to report they would be entering Rymeer’s waterways soon.

“We probably need to slow down some,” he said. “The gate shouldn’t be too far ahead.”

“We’d have to stop for the gate anyway,” Yahaba said. “Why slow down now?”

“The border patrol has orders to shoot anything moving too fast,” Akaashi replied. “Rymeer is a military territory, meaning it’s ridiculously secure. Also the fact that security is tighter at night, and it’ll be getting dark soon.”

Yahaba glanced at the sun slowly dipping towards the horizon. Akaashi wasn’t wrong there.

“Have you ever been to Rymeer?” Yahaba asked.

Akaashi shook his head. “No. I wanted to come see Issei, but my security clearance wasn’t high enough.”

“Well, apparently it is now,” Iwaizumi said, as he and Oikawa joined the two of them. Oikawa still refused to meet Yahaba’s eyes.

“That’s what I don’t understand,” Akaashi said. “We…” he gestured to himself, Oikawa, and Yahaba “haven’t even graduated yet. They’re not officers, and I’m only a Zeta. We shouldn’t be allowed clearance to go into Rymeer. Even you shouldn’t be able to, Iwaizumi, since you’re just a Delta.”

“There is something odd about this mission,” Yahaba commented. “I mean, how often do the send three graduation candidates and a leader recruit on a mission like this?”

“You do realize that Ahkajir has been on the verge of war since our grandparents were our age, don’t you Yahaba?” Oikawa asked sharply. “Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe we were called out on this mission because things have finally gotten bad enough that they don’t have the luxury of waiting until we’ve completed our training?”

Yahaba started to respond, but he huffed and walked across the deck before he got the chance to. Iwaizumi gave him a partially sympathetic glance before joining him. Beside Yahaba, Akaashi sighed. 

“You two are going to need to figure a way to get along,” he said. “Otherwise this whole mission will go up in smoke.”

“I know,” Yahaba muttered. “I just… I don’t know what to do to fix it.”

“Well, we’ll be stopped at Issei’s for the evening. Iwaizumi will have to report to the commanding officer of Rymeer for mission details, and I’m going to have to go meet with the head IGS there to find out just how much information they already have… maybe you two could talk then?”  
Yahaba looked up at Oikawa. 

“Maybe,” he said quietly, not really believing the word himself.

Akaashi looked like he was about to say something else, but right as he opened his mouth, his horse whinnied and drew Akaashi’s attention to behind them.

“Anaia, what is it girl?” Akaashi asked, reaching out to rub the mare’s neck.

“What’s going on?” Iwaizumi asked as he rejoined them.

“Anaia’s spooked over something,” Akaashi answered. He scanned our surroundings with a frustrated gaze. “I’m not sure over what though.”  
Iwaizumi placed his hand gently on Anaia’s nose and focused on the horse’s face. They’d already seen him do his horse-whispering trick earlier, but Yahaba still admired the coolness factor of it. Shifting, especially the kind of shifting Iwaizumi did, wasn’t a necessarily common ability, though it wasn’t one of the rarest either. But being able to communicate with animals while not shifted… that was extremely rare.

“She’s says there’s something – or someone – trailing us,” Iwaizumi said after a few brief seconds. He dropped his hand and ran across the deck to get a better look at the banks on either side of the river.

“Still not over the fact you can talk to horses,” Oikawa muttered.

“It’s a rare talent,” Iwaizumi admitted. “And not one I like to broadcast, but I figured if we’re all going to be working together on this mission, we should know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”

“Uh, right,” Akaashi said, his face turning slightly pale. Yahaba raised an eyebrow at him but he didn’t notice. “But what…”

“Shh!” Oikawa hissed, cutting Akaashi off. “There’s something coming.”

It all happened at once. Something very fast blew past them while at the same time Iwaizumi was yanked from the deck by a long green vine.

“Kakja!” Oikawa yelled. He reached for one of the throwing knives at his belt, but didn’t get a chance to use it as a sharp breeze flew past him, knocking him from the deck and into the river. He came up a few seconds later with a long string of curses. Fortunately, Oikawa was a strong swimmer, and in no time was standing on the riverbank, shouting more profanities and sending his knives flying in multiple directions.

“A runner,” Akaashi breathed. He quickly moved to unlatch the doors on the horses’ stalls so that they could get out if the boat were to be attacked. Finishing that, he grabbed a gun from the holster on his hip. “Not good. Not good at all.”

Yahaba gripped the wheel tightly as the sounds of fighting started to fill his ears. An abundance of swears came from Iwaizumi as he tried to break free of the vines that now entangled his body. He was constantly changing his shape, but that wasn’t working. No matter what form he took, the vines would just adjust. A ways away down river, Oikawa was shouting his own choice of profanities while he struggled to stay on his feet. Apparently, the runner kept knocking him off balance, and every time she managed to get upright, they would knock him down again.

“Yahaba!” Akaashi shouted. “Get us over there!”

With only a slight hesitation, Yahaba grabbed Akaashi around the waist and jumped over the boat’s railing, while at the same time summoning a wave to catch them and push them to the bank where Oikawa and Iwaizumi were fighting. Unfortunately, they weren’t saved from getting drenched in the process.  
Akaashi checked his guns to make sure they would still fire as Yahaba used the water to pull the boat over to the bank as well. 

“I’m going to help Iwaizumi,” Akaashi said. “You help your brother.”

The words hit him like a ton of bricks, and he didn’t even take notice of Akaashi shooting his gun at something off in the distance. The shouting quieted as blood rushed into his ears. 

_Help your brother_.

Those were words he hadn’t heard in seven years. Not since that night… the night when everything went wrong. Since then, the fact that Yahaba even had a brother hadn’t been something that was commonly brought up. That is, until earlier today, when he reappeared in his life with the force of a hurricane.  
Oikawa’s scream broke Yahaba out of his thoughts. His head snapped up in his direction as Oikawa grabbed his own arm.

“You fucking…” he started, just as the runner made another pass at him. He slowed just enough for Yahaba to see that they were holding a foot long knife, which apparently they had already landed one blow on Oikawa with. 

Oikawa managed to dodge the knife at the last minute by dropping to the ground and rolling out of the way. He jumped to his feet and yelled a few more swear words at them before thrusting out his good hand—which was now covered in blood from his arm. Knives flew from his belt and shot after the runner, but it didn’t seem like any were actually hitting their mark. 

Yahaba took off running towards Oikawa. As he did, he concentrated on the ground below his feet, trying to sense where the runner was and where they would be next. It was difficult to do, since they were running so fast, but by the time he reached Oikawa, he had a decent trace on them. 

“Tooru, hold your knives steady for a second,” Yahaba said.

“What?” he demanded. “Can’t you see I’m trying to pincushion this bastard?”

“Just trust me!” Yahaba shouted back. He felt through the earth again, and this time he was able to pinpoint exactly where the runner was. In one fluid motion of Yahaba’s arms and legs, he concentrated on creating a barrier around the runner. The ground shook as three solid walls erupted from the earth, trapping the runner with only one exit… the one that was now blocked by Oikawa and Yahaba.

Oikawa’s eyes widened as he looked from Yahaba to the runner, who, now that they were stopped, Yahaba could easily see. They were dark skinned, with dark hair and eyes, like people from the Aruna territory tended to be. Like most runners typically were, they were leanly built, but they weren’t extremely blessed with height.

“Who are you?” Yahaba demanded. 

They had the nerve to laugh. “You wish you knew, Yahaba-kun,” they said. 

Before Yahaba had a chance to respond, they vanished right before his eyes. Oikawa and Yahaba both shouted and braced themselves, expecting them to try and run past them. Except they didn’t. It didn’t make any sense though. Runners didn’t have invisibility powers. Everyone—kakja and kaswe alike—only had one power each. Sure, there were those rare—and by rare I mean once every millennium rare—occurrences where someone might have two powers, but if that ever happened, the powers were always very simple. Two powers as dangerous as invisibility and running at super speeds would never be combined. Which could only mean…

“There’s someone else,” Oikawa said. Then he let loose another batch of colorful language. “How could we have been so blind?!”

“Tooru…”

“Shut up, Shigeru!” he shouted at him. “I don’t want to hear another word from you, understand? Not unless we absolutely have to. We finish this mission, then we never see each other again, got it?”

He stormed away then, flipping his bangs out his face. Yahaba was left stunned for a few seconds before he realized he wasn’t alone.  
Yahaba tensed then wheeled around, aiming a punch as he did. The other person was ready though, and caught his punch expertly in his hand. Yahaba looked up into his face with more anger than shock.

“Who are you?” I snarled.

“The name’s Nakamura,” he said with a smirk. “And I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of more of each other, Yahaba. But right now, someone else wants to see you.”

“Who…” Yahaba stopped as an immense pain sparked in his fist that Nakamura still had in his grip. With complete shock, Yahaba saw that a black cloud of energy—or anti-energy, he realized—was moving down his arm, and along with it, the horrible burning pain, like if his very existence was being burned out of him.

“Enjoy dreamland, Yahaba-kun,” Nakamura said, just as the black cloud reached his shoulder. It spread towards his chest and his head and suddenly Yahaba felt everything in his world going black. Nakamura dropped his hand and Yahaba’s knees gave out. He fell to the ground as his consciousness slowly faded. He could Akaashi and Oikawa shouting, and horses riding towards him, and Nakamura’s cold hard laugh. Then, everything went dark.


	2. Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has dreams, but sometimes those dreams can have specific meanings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some terms to know about the world:
> 
>  _kakja_ : a race of people whose powers come from dark energy. Identified by cat eyes and elongated fangs
> 
>  _kaswe_ : a race of people whose powers come from light energy. Appear as normal humans
> 
>  _pala_ : a race of people whose powers come from both light and dark energy. Identified by normal eyes and elongated fangs
> 
>  _akats_ : an elf-like race of people. have powers over elements with a few exceptions

Iwaizumi had left earlier that day, and it had taken all Kenma had in him to not stop his brother, to make him stay behind where he would be safe.

As Kenma walked through the corridor of the dormitory, he analyzed each door he passed by. He was looking for a specific door, and was pretty sure he was on the right hallway.

Then again his brother’s directions could’ve been wrong.

Kenma was about to give up on his search, when a door at the end of the hallway opened and out walked the person he was looking for.

“Koushi!” he called out.

The other male turned and looked at him with surprise.

“Kenma?” he asked. “What’s up?”

Kenma hurried down the rest of the corridor so that he was standing beside Sugawara. “We need to talk,” he said.

Sugawara looked confused, but nodded his head. “Want to go talk in my room?”

Kenma nodded and followed Sugawara into the room that he shared with his brother.

“So what is it you need to talk about?” Sugawara asked as they settled into the room, Sugawara sitting on his own bed and Kenma settling down onto Iwaizumi’s bed so they were facing each other. 

“It’s… uh, a vision I had,” Kenma said slowly. “It… it all goes wrong.”

Sugawara looked up at him with a serious expression. “Wrong how?” he asked.

Kenma fixes him with a look. “You know I can’t tell you that. Just know that it’s not going to be good, and you’re going to be needed to help.”

“Should I even bother asking how I need to help?”

Kenma shook his head. “I can’t tell you much, but your friend with the bedhead I told you about, we’ll need him too.”

Sugawara sputtered. “I only just reunited with him last week what am I supposed to tell him?”

Kenma shrugged. “Honestly he’ll probably understand why you’re there without you having to tell him much.”

“Why, is he like you…?”

“No,” Kenma said quickly. “He’s just… well, you’ll figure it out eventually, I guess. I do need you to tell him to find Oikawa and Yahaba’s cousin, though.”

“Their cousin?”

Kenma nodded. “At least, I think it was their cousin. My vision didn’t tell me, but when I saw them, I just got the feeling that it’s their cousin.“

“That’s reassuring,” Sugawara muttered. “So when is all this going to happen?”

“Tomorrow? Day after tomorrow? My vision wasn’t very clear, all I know is that it’s going to happen soon.”

“Again, reassuring.” Sugawara sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Kenma are you sure about all this?”

It was Kenma’s turn to sigh. “Honestly, Koushi, I’m not. But I’ve considered all the options that I’ve seen, and this is our only option.”

“Are you worried? About Hajime?”

“Yes.”

Sugawara gave him a sad sort of smile. Kenma knew how much the other cared for his brother, maybe even more than Sugawara knew himself. Sugawara had to be just as worried as he was. 

“He’ll be okay,” Sugawara said. “They’ll all be okay.”

… 

There wasn’t anything around Yahaba. There was light, but it wasn’t blinding. Yahaba couldn’t really describe what it was like. Confusion crept along the edges of his mind. Hadn’t he just been on the way to Rhymeer a few minutes ago? Why was he here? He remembered that guy—Nakamura—and the weird anti-energy whatever stuff snaked across his body then… nothing. He was just… here. 

“It’s good to see you Yahaba-kun,” a female voice broke through the eerie silence that pierced his ears. 

Yahaba turned around and was met with a pair of striking gray cat eyes. He started when she held his gaze, her cold and calculating look boring into him. A prick of familiarity ran through the back of Yahaba’s mind, but was gone as soon as it came. 

Her thin lips stretched into a forced smile as she studied him. 

“Who are you?” he asked, finally finding his voice. “How are you doing this?”

“You’ve changed so much since I last saw you,” she continued, as if Yahaba hadn’t said anything. “I remember when you first discovered your powers… you were so young then. Didn’t realize your full potential.”

“I’m going to ask again,” Yahaba growled. “Who. Are. You?”

Her mouth turned down and her voice was resigned as she said, “I’m disappointed you don’t remember me, but don’t worry, it should come back to you soon enough.” Her mouth fell back into it’s harsh line.

“What do you mean?” 

“Really, Yahaba, I thought you were supposed to be the clever sibling. That’s why you’re here instead of Oikawa.” Yahaba bristled at the way she said Oikawa’s name, like a threat. 

“You stay away from him,” Yahaba spat.

“Oh don’t worry, he’ll be here soon. There are certain things we need from him as well.” She stepped closer towards him.

“A test is coming for you Yahaba. For you, your brother, and the rest of your team. All of you are going to be tested.”

“Why?” he ground out.

“Because you are all,” she paused as she searched for the word, “special. Each and every one of you. And you personally Yahaba… you have information. Information that is very important to me.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” 

“That’s okay,” she said. “You don’t need to. Just know that one day, Yahaba… One day very soon, in fact, we will come for you. And when we do,” She turned and started walking away into the background. “When we do, you won’t be able to stop it.”

His heart was pounding swiftly in his chest as he said in a low tone, “I’d like to see you try.”

“You will.” She turned to look at him over her shoulder, and the corner of her mouth lifted and a shiver shot down his spine, “But for now you need to return to your team.”  
Just like that, she disappeared, and Yahaba fell into darkness once again. 

…

Kuroo frowned at the man sitting across from him. He had known Sugawara when they were kids, but that had been years ago. They had reunited a week ago, and now Suga had asked him to lunch in the city. 

“What’s this about, Suga?” he asked. 

“Well, to be perfectly honest, I was told by a seer friend of mine that later my friends are going to need your help.”

“My help? Did this friend of yours specify what kind of help?”

“No, other than you need to go find someone,” Suga answered. 

“So this friend of yours knows about my particular talents?” Kuroo asked, leaning back in his chair with a smirk. 

Suga rolled his eyes. “Yes, Kuroo, my friend knows that you are insanely overpowered and slightly egotistical.”

“Harsh, Kou-chan,” Kuroo said. He nodded his head back, eyeing Suga. “So what does this person look like that I’m suppose to find?”

…

Yahaba woke up to the sight of Akaashi leaning over him. 

“Oh good, you’re awake,” the other male said. 

“Akaashi?” Yahaba groaned, holding his head. “What happened?”

“There was a fight,” he said. “You and Oikawa caught the runner. But they got away and this other guy… he… I don’t really know what happened but he knocked you  
unconscious.”

Lifting his head, Yahaba saw that he was in an underground bunker of some sort. There was barely any furniture besides the couch he was on. There was a coffee table  
placed in front of the couch that Akaashi was sitting on, as well as a few other chairs. Oikawa was sitting in one of the chairs across the room. His arm was wrapped up in a bandage from where he had been cut in the fight earlier and he wore a scowl on his face as he flipped one of his knives through the middle of the air towards a target hung on the wall across the room. It hit the bull’s eye dead center. He briefly made eye contact with Yahaba, but his eyes quickly resumed their place of attention on his knife.

Yahaba turned back to Akaashi. 

“Where are we?” 

“Rhymeer,” a male voice from the doorway said. Yahaba looked up and saw a tall, curly haired man that looked a lot like Akaashi. “The border guards found you guys shortly after the kakja attacked you. They brought you straight to me.”

“Yahaba, I don’t know if you remember him from seven years ago, but this is my brother, First Gamma Matsukawa Issei,” Akaashi said.

Yahaba started to stand up, as was proper procedure when being introduced to a ranking officer, but a wave of nausea hit him and he doubled over and collapsed back down onto the couch.

“Don’t try to stand yet,” Akaashi scolded. “We don’t know exactly what happened to you, so we aren’t sure how to treat you but we do know that you need to rest.”

“I brought some clothes for you to change into, once your head’s cleared enough,” Matsukawa said. 

He walked over and sat down next to his brother on the coffee table, setting a set of clean clothes down beside him. 

“What about the mission?” Yahaba asked, looking back up at the two curly haired siblings.

“Don’t worry about that right now,” Matsukawa said. “I’ve contacted the Academy and explained what happened. I said that it was a surprise ambush and that all four of you handled it excellently, but there were some unfortunate injuries that occurred, and that you would need extra time to gain back your strength.”

“What did they say back?” Akaashi asked, obviously as new to this news as Yahaba was. Across the room, Yahaba noticed even Oikawa perk up a slight bit and turn to listen to what Matsukawa was saying. 

“They granted you an extra day here in Rhymeer. Apparently, the attack has alerted them that you might be slightly ill equipped for this mission, so they have asked us to add extra weapons to your supplies. Other than that though, I believe Commander Washijo was pleased to hear that you four successfully drove the kakja away from Rhymeer’s borders, which is actually true. You four did a surprisingly good job, despite the fact that something like this is well above your pay grade, so to speak.”

He playfully ruffled Akaashi’s hair, despite his best efforts to push him away. Yahaba watched their exchange briefly before he glanced over in Oikawa’s direction and noticed he was watching the other siblings as well. Yahaba wondered if he was thinking the same thing he was: that this is how siblings were supposed to interact. As if he sensed Yahaba looking at him, Oikawa’s gaze moved over to him. Instead of the glare Yahaba would have expected, his eyes were soft and for the first time Yahaba could actually see the different emotions that he was hiding there. 

Akaashi apparently noticed the two of them looking at each other and nudged Matsukawa in the arm. He caught on, and bent over to pick up the cup sitting beside Akaashi on the table. 

“I’ll go get you some more water, Yahaba,” he said. “And Keiji, I would also like to talk to you and get a better account of what happened as well, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure Issei,” Akaashi said, jumping to his feet and starting to follow Matsukawa out of the door. “I’ll be back in a little while guys.”

Then he and his brother were gone, leaving Oikawa and Yahaba alone.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Yahaba didn’t think either of them really knew what to say to the other. Oikawa was sitting defiantly in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes glaring at the floor. Yahaba fiddled with a string on the arm of the couch for a while. Oikawa eventually moved from staring at the floor and instead threw more knives at the target. Yahaba winced every time one hit.

Yahaba fought for the words to say to him, but he couldn’t think of anything. What are you suppose to say to someone you’ve just been reunited with after almost seven years of not seeing them? Trying to say ‘hi’ hadn’t worked earlier, and Yahaba was positive it wouldn’t be appropriate now. Yahaba took a breath.

“How’s your arm?” he finally asked.

Another knife threw at the target. Bull’s eye. Oikawa flicked his hand back towards himself and all the knives that were stuck in the target flew back towards him. He levitated them in the air above his head for a while before finally lowering them down onto the table beside him. 

“It’s fine,” he muttered. “Just a little scratch.”

Yahaba knew that he was just saying that, trying to sound like he wasn’t bothered by any of this. Of course, if he was anything like him—which Yahaba suspected was pretty likely—his arm was the least of his worries at the moment. 

“Tooru…” Yahaba tried again to start a conversation, only to have Oikawa snap up his head and glare at him. For a second, Yahaba was scared that his knives would suddenly start flying at him.

“Shut up,” Oikawa said in a low tone. “Just shut up Shigeru, okay? I want to be mad at you, and I can’t do that when you’re talking and acting like everything’s okay between us when it isn’t.”

“Why are you mad at me?” Yahaba asked.

“Seven years,” was all he said.

“That wasn’t my fault.”

“We were at the academy together.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“You should’ve.”

Yahaba gave an exasperated sigh and leaned back further into the couch.

“You don’t think that it wasn’t hard for me?” Yahaba asked after a short pause. “I was taken to live with a bunch of strangers I had never even met before. At least you had Aunt Imeria and Koutarou.”

Oikawa snorted at the mention of their great aunt and cousin, who he had been sent to live with seven years ago.

“Oh, yeah like that’s any better,” he said. “Growing up in a poor seaside village in Aruna with your decrepit old aunt and your idiot of a cousin who loves nothing better than to ruin your day. Being telekinetic when you’re surrounded by a bunch of water and air elementests? Trust me, going to Antse was the best thing that could’ve happened to you.”

“It wasn’t as good as you would think,” Yahaba said quietly. “I was living with Dad’s family—all fire elementests. They all hated Mom. When I discovered I had the ability to control water as well as fire… well, let’s just say that wasn’t really taken with a grain of salt. Sure, I lived in their house. But I was never part of their family.”

“But still Shigeru, you were in _Antse_! We grew up dreaming about being able to go there. Dad told us all the stories—about how Antse was the most beautiful place in the world—unaffected by the war, living with four colonies in peace. How can you have not appreciated that?”

Yahaba smiled slightly. Oikawa was sitting on the edge of his chair now, looking at him expectantly. He didn’t seem angry anymore. Just eager. 

Yahaba considered what had just happened. Had he really managed to get Oikawa to crack his shell, even just a slight amount? When they were kids, he had been able to do that pretty easily, but he was out of practice now. He didn’t want to lose him now though, so he smiled slightly.

“I guess, when you put it that way… There were parts of my life that were pretty good. I traveled through the colonies quite a bit, since Dad’s family basically ignored my existence, and I had to find somebody to teach me to manipulate the other three elements. That was the best—being able to see all of the different places in Antse. Dad’s stories were true. It really is a beautiful place.”

Oikawa bit his lip for a second before standing up and walking over to the couch Yahaba was sitting on and sat down at the opposite end from me.

“Living on the coast did have its perks,” he admitted. “And Mom’s family did fortunately accept me, despite my different powers. It was still awkward at times though. I couldn’t play all the games the other kids could, because I didn’t have the same powers. And living with Aunt Imeria and Koutarou really wasn’t too horrible. Koutarou and I actually could get along most of the time. And Aunt Imeria makes the best food…”

“And I’m sure they supported your decision to join the Academy, right?”

Oikawa nodded. “Aunt Imeria wasn’t exactly thrilled about me going off to fight. I think Koutarou was jealous a bit, but since they were leaving the same year to go to the Elementest Academy in Antse, they got over it pretty quickly. But all in all, no one told me I couldn’t.”

“I wish it had been like that for me,” Yahaba said. “I was basically told that if I left, I’d never be welcomed back.” 

“But you went anyway,” he said.

“I had to,” Yahaba answered. “It was… It was what Mom and Dad would’ve wanted me to do.”

That hung heavily in the air between the two of them. It had taken a long time for Yahaba to come to terms with what had happened to their parents, and he figured the same went for Oikawa. 

After minutes of silence, Oikawa finally spoke.

“I miss them Shigeru,” he said softly. He looked down at the floor in front of him, pulling his knees up to his chest and hugging his legs tightly. 

“Everyday since they’ve been gone,” he continued, “I’ve tried and tried to do what I think they would want me to. I went to the Academy because I thought they would want me to. I agreed to be a PCS, even though I could’ve been a Situation or even a Stealth Fighter Specialist… all because I figured that’s what they would want of me. But Yahaba… We were ten when… when it happened. I don’t know what Mom and Dad would want.”

As Oikawa spoke, Yahaba could see his protective shell falling away. He was letting himself be vulnerable in front of him. Yahaba knew immediately this wasn’t the same man who had thrown him into a bookshelf earlier that day. 

Without thinking, Yahaba reached out and placed his hand on Oikawa’s shoulder. At first, Oikawa seemed like he wanted to pull away from him. He looked up at him with shock and confusion. But instead of recoiling like Yahaba expected him to, Oikawa did just the opposite. He closed the distance between them on the couch and wrapped his arms around him, buried his head in Yahaba’s shoulder and started to cry. Surprised as he was, Yahaba carefully wrapped his arms around Oikawa’s back and held him as he cried. 

“I thought I had lost you too, Shi-chan,” he muttered. “Not in the same way as Mom and Dad, but it was close enough. They took you away. I didn’t know if I was ever going to see you again.”

“It’s okay Tooru,” he murmured. “It’s okay.”

Yahaba didn’t know how long they stayed like that, but somewhere during that time Yahaba felt tears start sliding down his cheeks as well. He couldn’t remember the last time he had cried. But sitting there on that couch, holding his crying brother in his arms—his brother who he hadn’t seen in seven years… he just couldn’t help it.  
So they sat there together in Matsukawa’s bunker, letting years of pent up emotions go. Eventually, Oikawa stopped crying and sat up.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I just…”

“Don’t worry,” Yahaba said. “I understand. My guess is you’ve been holding onto that for the last seven years, right?” 

He nodded. They sat quietly for another minute or so while Oikawa used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe the few remaining tears from his eyes. Then, very unexpectedly, he pulled back and punched him in the arm.

“Ow!” Yahaba exclaimed. “What was that for?!”

“For being at the Academy and never bothering to look me up, meanie,” Oikawa retorted. “And, also, it was a warning. If you ever tell anyone about my breakdown that I just had, I swear I will make you regret it until the day you die.”

“Consider me warned,” Yahaba said. 

“Oh, and Shigeru? Thanks.”

Yahaba grinned. “No problem.”

…

“It was her,” Akaashi said. 

Matsukawa’s head shot up as he looked at Akaashi with worry. Akaashi didn’t even have to clarify who he was talking about. His brother knew. 

They were sitting in the kitchen of his house in the Rhymeer territory. When they had first gotten here, he’d been surprised at the size of it, but Matsukawa said he actually shared it with someone else, a guy named Kyoutani, who was a high-ranking technician.

After they had left Oikawa and Yahaba in the bunker (the bunker was more or less the basement of the house, only unlike a normal basement, it was reinforced to be able to withstand powerful attacks from the outside).

Unfortunately, their topic of conversation had shifted away from casual catching up into much more dangerous areas.

“You’re sure?” Matsukawa asked, his voice calm but forceful. 

Akaashi nodded. “I didn’t see her, but I knew she was there. Maybe not physically, but she’d definitely had a hand it all. She was the one who sent them to attack us.”

“Did the others…”

“No, I don’t think they did,” he replied. “Like I said, I didn’t see her. I could just tell. Besides… I was the only one who didn’t get attacked.”

Matsukawa was quiet for a few minutes before standing up and walking across the room. He stood with his back to Akaashi for the longest time. Neither of them spoke.

“You know what this means, right?” he finally asked, still not looking at Akaashi.

Akaashi stared at him wide eyed, though he knew Matsukawa couldn’t tell. 

“Issei…”

“We’ve talked about this, Keiji,” he said, turning around towards him. “We knew that this could happen.”

“So what?” Akaashi asked. “All I said is that she was there in one way or another. It could’ve been that I was just sensing that she had been near the people that attacked us recently. Her soldiers didn’t even attack me. They were after the other three—Yahaba especially. Why do you think he’s the one that ended up unconscious on your couch?”

“That’s not the point Keiji. Even if they didn’t know you were there tonight, she’ll find out. The more you put yourself out into the world, the more likely it will be for them to find you.” Matsukawa looked at him with cold, hard eyes. Akaashi forced himself not to shrink away.

“It doesn’t matter, Issei,” Akaashi said firmly. “I’m not removing myself from the world just because there’s a chance she might find me.”

“And if she does find you?”

That made Akaashi hesitate. Matsukawa and he had always talked about the possibility of her finding him. They knew she would probably want to… after what had happened the last time they had seen her. They didn’t understand what it meant for him though… why she would want Akaashi at all. 

“Look, I know it’s a risk. But this is something I have to do.” Akaashi tried to sound as calm as he could. “I can’t sit by and not do anything. I went to the Academy because I thought I could do something to help.”

“I know,” he said. “I backed you on that. But we never thought that you would end up going on a mission like this.”

“It’s too late for me to back down now,” Akaashi said hotly. 

Matsukawa and Akaashi had had these arguments before. For most of his teenage years—ever since Akaashi’s powers developed when he was twelve—they had always had disagreements. Should he keep his powers a secret (Matsukawa won that one); should he go to Edil to train at the Academy (point for Akaashi, but with many restrictions). The last time they had argued had been right before Matsukawa had left Edil. He was worried about leaving Akaashi at the school alone, since one of the only reasons he had agreed to let him go in the first place was because that was where he was currently stationed and he could keep an eye on him. Since they had been two of the only ones who actually knew the truth about my powers, he was scared Akaashi would end up in trouble. Akaashi, being the stubborn sixteen year old he was, had of course insisted that he would be fine, that he had been keeping this secret for nearly four years without incident, and he could easily handle himself. 

So, yeah, Matsukawa and Akaashi arguing wasn’t anything new. Akaashi losing arguments also wasn’t anything new. But this time he was determined to stand his ground. He wasn’t going to be taken off this mission for any reason at all.

Matsukawa sighed and slumped down in the kitchen chair he was sitting in. 

“Keiji, I’m not saying that you have to leave the mission. I know that’s impossible. All I want is for you to be careful though. I can’t risk losing you.”

Akaashi relaxed a little when his brother said he wasn’t going to make him abandon the mission, but he also took in how completely spent his brother looked. There was a lot more on his plate than he was letting on about.

“Issei, is there something else you’re not telling me?” Akaashi asked.

“What? No.”

“There is,” Akaashi said, walking over to the table where he was sitting and pulling out the chair across from him. “Issei, I can tell there is. Now tell me what’s wrong.”

“Keiji, don’t worry about it, okay? I’m fine.” He was lying, though. Akaashi could tell.

“Issei…”

“It’s getting late,” he said, standing up abruptly. “You should get to bed. I’ll take Yahaba his water and make sure those two haven’t killed each other. Iwaizumi should also be getting back soon. I’m sure he’ll have a lot to report.”

Without another word, he stood up and walked away. Akaashi sighed and dropped his head down onto the table.

So much for having a meaningful conversation with his brother. With another sigh, he pushed himself up from his chair and walked to the living room. Matsukawa had  
been right about it being late, and he really should get some sleep. So reluctantly, Akaashi lay down on the couch and settled in to sleep. 

… 

In Akaashi’s dream, his childhood village was burning. 

_It was a cold and snowy night in the middle of the winter. Akaashi was asleep in his bed, buried underneath a mountain of blankets to try and shake the perpetual chill of his room._

_“Keiji! Keiji wake up!”_

_The forceful voice of his brother invaded his peaceful dreams, but Akaashi simply grumbled and burrowed further under his warm blankets._

_“Keiji, come on, you have to wake up,” his brother repeated. “The village is under attack.”_

_To add emphasis to his words, the sounds of ringing alarm bells penetrated Akaashi’s sleeping mind then. His eyes flew open and he pushed his way out of blanket cocoon._

_“Issei, what’s going on?” she asked, her voice shaking with the fear currently threatening to seize his small body._

_“The kakja are attacking the village,” Matsukawa replied, his dark brown eyes shining with an unreadable emotion. “We aren’t safe here. We need to go.”_

_He pulled him out of bed and to the front door of their home, where he pushed boots and his heavy winter cloak at him. Still sleep dazed as he was, Akaashi took a second to realize his brother was already dressed for the outside._

_“But… how could the kakja be attacking?” Akaashi asked, making sure his boots were secure as Matsukawa tightened the cloak on his shoulders and pulled up its hood so that his hair and most of his face were hidden from view. Matsukawa reached up to adjust his own hood, hesitating in his answer._

_“No one really knows how they got in, but they’ve already almost destroyed nearly half of the village. Mom said… Mom told me to get you and for us to go to the Oikawas’ home. We should be safe there until she can get to us.”_

_“But what about Dad and Shimi?”_

_“They… they left.” The pain that passed over Matsukawa’s face in that moment was something Akaashi was sure he would never forget, but his brother quickly shook the moment off and took his hand as he opened the door. “Come on, we need to get going.”_

_The streets were in chaos. People everywhere were running and shouting. Children separated from their parents were crying, and parents frantically searching for their lost children became apparent threats to anyone who stood in their way. Matsukawa led the two of them as quietly through the chaos as he could, trying to not draw attention to themselves. Akaashi couldn’t tell if there were any kakja around, but he doubted it. The growing cloud of smoke growing at the southern edge of the village indicated their whereabouts well enough._

_Still, he couldn’t help but be nervous. Children were raised hearing stories of the kakja and all the evil that they did. At one point, it had been a nice fairy tale. But forty years ago, something in the world had changed. Rumors of the kakja becoming stronger, of them finally breaking free of the northern island chain where they had been confined for years. Eventually, that led to the war, which had been going on now for nearly twenty years, ten years before Akaashi had even been born._

_As Matsukawa pushed him into the alleyway between two houses to hide them from a passing mob, Akaashi realized why his brother was being so cautious. They were pala, a race of people who were biological descendents of kakja and kaswe. Because of this, Akaashi and his brother had features that sometimes made people mistake them for kakja. At a time like this, it wouldn’t be surprising for someone to lash out violently at them, despite the fact that no one in their village ever seemed to be judgemental of who they were before._

_With the many times they had to duck and hide, the trip to the Oikawa house took longer than normal. Just as they were crossing the last street, a voice called out for them to stop._

_“Matsukawa, Akaashi, wait!”_

_Recognizing the voice of Mr. Iwaizumi, Akaashi and his brother turned to see the man running from his house. His wife followed him, joined by their two children Hajime and Kenma._

_“Sir,” Matsukawa said, his voice sounding surprised. “What…”_

_He didn’t finish his sentence, because at that moment Oikawa Tooru pushed his way out from behind the siblings and sprinted over to Akaashi and his brother._

_“Have you seen my parents? Or Shigeru? Do you know where my family is?” he demanded, reaching out to grab Matsukawa’s hand. Being three years older than him and his friends, Akaashi knew how much they all looked up to his older brother for answers. Tooru especially, seemed enamored by the idea of an older, responsible brother who had the answers to everything. With the terrified look that was filling Tooru’s usually guarded brown eyes, Akaashi found himself wanting in that moment for his brother to have all the answers that he didn’t._

_But Matsukawa could only shake his head sadly. He had as much knowledge about the whereabouts of the Oikawa family as Akaashi did._

_“I don’t know, Tooru. I’m sorry,” he said._

_Tooru’s desperate gaze turned to Akaashi, and he really wished he could find a way to help his friend. Together the two turned towards Tooru’s house, which sat dark and lonely just a ways down the street. A cold feeling set over Akaashi that had nothing to do with the snow currently blowing around him._

_“Tooru we can’t…”_

_His words were cut off by the sound of an explosion and a huge burst of flame that rushed out of the Oikawa house. As flames shot up into the sky, their whole group stood paralyzed at the sight._

_With the exception of one._

_Akaashi barely had time to process what was happening before Tooru’s scream pierced through the stunned silence and Akaashi and Matsukawa were thrown backwards by an unseen force. As he pushed himself up to a sitting position, Akaashi saw Tooru running towards his home. He knew his friend would’ve run straight into the flames if he hadn’t been tackled to the ground by Hajime, who was the only one able to react fast enough to stop him._

_Tooru screamed in protest, pushing and fighting against Hajime’s hold, but the other held on. Akaashi and Matsukawa ran over to them, and Akaashi was shocked to see tears streaming from Tooru’s eyes. He couldn’t remember ever seeing Tooru crying._

_As the fight drained out of Tooru he slowly pulled himself out of Hajime’s arms. Akaashi noted Hajime seemed reluctant to let him go, and kept one arm wrapped tightly around his shoulders as Tooru pulled his knees up to his chest._

_No one said anything. They sat in silence and watched as all of their lives changed forever._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	3. Travels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kuroo is searching for someone, Akaashi has secrets, and Iwaizumi just needs sleep.

There was water. A lot of water. Kuroo sighed as he looked out at the ocean in front of him. He’d visited the ocean a few times before, and never had he really been impressed. This time was no different.

He had figured it was typical of his life that Suga’s quest would send him somewhere he wasn’t a fan of.

He really didn’t even know where to start looking for this person he was sent here to find. All Suga had said was that it was Oikawa and Yahaba’s cousin, and that he would find them in a fishing village in Aruna.

So far, that had been a bust. Mainly because there were a lot of fishing villages in Aruna.

He knew what the person he was looking for looked like, at least. Turning from the ocean, Kuroo walked back to the row of buildings lining the shore. This would be the third village he had tried. He was really not looking forward to having to searching more.

“Hey hey hey you’re not from around here.”

Kuroo turned in the direction the voice had come from and nearly sobbed in relief. Standing there was the person he was looking for.

Gray and white hair stood up in a ridiculous fashion, making the person look like an owl. Wide, golden eyes only added to the owlish effect. 

“Ah, no, I’m not,” Kuroo answered. 

“That’s awesome bro, we don’t get many visitors here.” The other person reached out to shake Kuroo’s hand. “Bokuto Koutarou, at your service.”

Kuroo accepted the hand with a grin. He’d been right, this was exactly who he was looking for. 

“Kuroo Tetsurou,” he said. 

“Kuroo! Sweet. Hey you have anywhere to stay?”

“Ah, no, I don’t,” Kuroo answered. Really, he hadn’t thought he would _need_ to stay in the town. He figured just find Bokuto, and get back to the city. 

“You can stay with me and my aunt then!” Bokuto said excitedly. “She’s always down for company, and we don’t actually have an inn or tavern or anything like that so you need somewhere to stay. Also my aunt cooks the best food. Hope you like meat!”

“Uh, yeah I do. Thanks. But actually Bo - can I call you Bo? - I need to tell you something,” Kuroo took a breath, taking in the look of confusion Bokuto was giving him. “You see, I was sent here to find you.”

“Find me?”

“Yeah. I have a friend who has a friend who’s a seer, and that seer said that I needed to find you, because you’re going to be needed to help your cousins.”

“My cousins? You mean Tooru?” Bokuto’s face fell. “What does Tooru need help with?”

“That I don’t know. I think it has something to do with the mission he and Yahaba were sent on,” Kuroo admitted. “But I’m guessing my friend’s seer friend would be able to tell you.”

“Shigeru?” Bokuto said. “He and Tooru are together? Oh man, Tooru missed him so much while he lived here! I’m glad they met back up!”

Kuroo blinked. Had they just completely missed the point?

“Yeah, uh, but there’s a chance something could go wrong on their mission. Which is why I was sent to get you,” Kuroo said. 

“Right right!” Bokuto said. “I’d do anything for Tooru and Shigeru. Let’s go!”

“You sure? Do you need to tell your aunt or anything?”

“Oh, yeah I probably should. We can eat while we’re there. Then we go help Tooru and Shigeru!”

…

Akaashi bolted upright, nearly falling off the couch as he did. 

He took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves before looking around to take inventory of where he was. He relaxed a little when he remembered he was on the couch in Matsukawa’s living room. They were in Rhymeer on a mission, taking a short rest stop before going out to find the kakja encampment. They’d been attacked on their way here. Oikawa had been cut in the arm with a knife, and Yahaba had been knocked unconscious by… Akaashi didn’t know yet what—or who—had knocked him out.

“Akaashi?” he looked up to see Iwaizumi standing in the doorway. His usually calm and collected expression had fallen just the slightest amount, showing his exhaustion and also worry. 

“What is it?” he asked. “Is something wrong?” 

“N-nothing,” Akaashi stuttered. “Just a bad dream.”

Iwaizumi’s jaw tightened. Akaashi could tell that the excuse “just a bad dream” was one he was familiar with, and was also one he wasn’t going to accept for an answer.

“What about?” Iwaizumi asked. His tone was cool and serious, leaving no openings for jokes or other half-hearted excuses. 

“It’s nothing,” Akaashi said, even though he knew Iwaizumi wouldn’t accept that as an answer. “Please don’t worry about me. Besides, you should probably get some rest. You look exhausted.”

Iwaizumi sighed deeply before sinking down into the armchair closest to him. 

“You’re right about that,” he muttered. “I am exhausted. I’ve been up since the crack of dawn… what time is it anyway?”

Akaashi looked down at his watch. “About two in the morning.”

Iwaizumi groaned and leaned his head back with his eyes closed. “I’ve been awake sixteen hours then. Great.”

“And it hasn’t exactly been an easy sixteen hours either, has it?”

He shook his head faintly. “Not in the least bit. The boat ride, then the kakja attack. Plus the report I had to give to the senior officers here.”

“How did that go?” Akaashi asked.

“I could’ve used some back up,” Iwaizumi answered, opening one eye to give him a pointed look. “Those superiors were brutal. Didn’t seem to believe anything about a kakja attack. And since I didn’t really have any physical proof…”

“I would’ve loved to have helped,” Akaashi said. “But you know, only a Zeta, so I couldn’t go in front of the superiors. Besides, I had to get the information for our mission.”

“Oh yeah,” he said. “What did you find out?”

Akaashi waved his hand dismissively. “I’ll tell you later, when Oikawa and Yahaba are here to hear it as well.”

“Are they still downstairs?”

Akaashi nodded. “Yahaba woke up awhile ago. Issei and I have been letting those two talk in private. They haven’t seen each other in seven years, you know.”

“None of us have,” Iwaizumi muttered quietly. He frowned and looked at Akaashi quizzically. “Don’t you think it’s a little weird that after being apart for so long we’ve all been put on this mission together?”

“I think it’s more than a little weird,” Akaashi said. 

“What do you mean by that?” he asked. 

“I mean…” Akaashi took a deep breath. “I mean… Okay, look. If we’re going to do this mission together, you need to know there are no such things a coincidences in my life.”

Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow. “Okay…”

“My point is, I don’t think it was by accident or sheer luck that the four of us were given this mission.”

He seemed to consider this for a few seconds before nodding.

“That’s what I was thinking too,” he said. “I just… didn’t want to jump to conclusions. But if you feel the same way, then…”

“Then for some reason I can’t fathom, someone wants the four of us working together again. If you count being childhood friends as ‘working together’,” Akaashi said.  
Iwaizumi started to say something, but just then Oikawa appeared in the doorway. He nodded stiffly at Iwaizumi—only to acknowledge the fact that he was a ranking officer— before turning to Akaashi with his arms crossed. “Akaashi, Matsukawa sent me here to ask you if you could bring down some food for Yahaba.”

Akaashi nodded and stood up. Oikawa and Iwaizumi both followed him to the kitchen and stood in complete silence as he heated some soup for Yahaba. 

“Do either of you want anything?” he asked without looking at them. When neither responded, he forced back his irritation.

Akaashi was familiar with Oikawa’s attitude and Iwaizumi’s independent mindset. It was actually surprising how similar they were: both were extremely stubborn with doing things the way they thought was best. The only difference was that Iwaizumi knew where to draw the line with his stubbornness, where Oikawa was severely wanting in that area. 

Akaashi also knew that the two of them were not on the best of terms. He hadn’t seen them interact much at the academy, but even when they were kids they had clashed at points. Their relationship was really weird, because at times they would act like best friends and other times it had been all Yahaba and he could do to keep them from trying to kill each other. And that was before Oikawa’s powers had developed. 

Shaking his head, Akaashi went ahead and poured the soup into bowls, one for Iwaizumi and Oikawa and then one for Yahaba. Matsukawa and he had eaten earlier while Iwaizumi was gone and they were waiting for Yahaba to wake up. (At that point, Oikawa had been asleep as well, after nodding off in the chair he was sitting in in Matsukawa’s basement). 

Akaashi grabbed two of the bowls and turned around to hand them to Oikawa and Iwaizumi when it happened. He felt his vision slide out of focus and suddenly he wasn’t seeing Oikawa and Iwaizumi standing in front of him in Matsukawa’s kitchen anymore… instead he saw them each a couple of years younger, standing on the central quad at the Academy, glaring at each other in a cocky sort of “I’m-going-to-kick-your-ass-at-this-because-I’m-freaking-awesome-and-a-hell-of-a-lot-better-than-you” kind of way. Akaashi gasped and blinked, his vision coming back to the present. Unfortunately, as was usual when this happens, he was thrown off balance when he came back. The soup bowls fell out of his hands as he tried to catch himself before he face planted into the counter.

It would’ve been a mess if Oikawa hadn’t been there. He simply stuck out a hand and the bowls stopped falling. They never hit the ground, and the soup stayed where it was suppose to.

Akaashi cursed silently as Iwaizumi rushed over to help him up. He shrugged him off as gently as he could. There was no way Akaashi was going to appear any weaker in front of these two than he already did.

“Are you okay?” Iwaizumi asked.

“What was that about?” Oikawa asked at the same time. 

Akaashi shook his head. He couldn’t explain it to them. Not now. 

“I just… I got really dizzy all of a sudden,” he said, wincing inwardly at how lame the excuse sounded. “Guess I’m not fully awake yet.”

Oikawa spun the bowls in the air by wiggling his fingers. He stood there completely unimpressed by Akaashi’s excuse. Iwaizumi placed a hand on his shoulder.

“But are you okay?” he asked again.

Akaashi nodded, still getting the feeling that Iwaizumi was used to these kinds of things happening, and he knew Akaashi was completely lying through his teeth about it being nothing. But Akaashi wasn’t about to explain that to either of them, especially since neither of them knew about his powers. Also, what he had seen really confused him, because for the life of him, he couldn’t think of any time he had seen Oikawa and Iwaizumi giving each other that kind of look before.  
Akaashi decided it was best not to dwell on that. 

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s just get this soup downstairs.”

...

They got downstairs to find Yahaba sitting on the couch they had left him on with Matsukawa sitting across from him on the coffee table. Yahaba was wearing the fresh clothes Matsukawa had provided, but he still looked pretty rough. Akaashi was leading the way down the stairs, but Iwaizumi had refused to let him carry any of the soup bowls, just in case he “got dizzy” again. Akaashi couldn’t help but be thankful that neither of them were telepaths, otherwise they would’ve been treated to the full range of his choice vocabulary.

“We made it back,” Oikawa reported as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Akaashi heard the door at the top close and assumed he had closed it with his telekinesis. “There were a few difficulties but…”

“Oikawa,” Iwaizumi warned. 

Matsukawa gave Akaashi a curious glance, but didn’t say anything. Akaashi knew he’d hear about it later though. 

“How are you doing Yahaba?” Iwaizumi asked, handing him a bowl of soup and then sitting down on the coffee table next to Matsukawa. Oikawa took his bowl and retreated to the armchair he had been sitting in earlier. Akaashi decided to go ahead and sit on the couch next to Yahaba.

“I’ve been better,” Yahaba muttered. “I still don’t understand what happened.”

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Matsukawa said. “Can you describe what happened Yahaba?”

“All I remember is turning around and there was this really big, burly guy. He said his name was… Nakamura? He had this weird ability… when he touched me, it was like I could feel my powers being pulled from my body,” Yahaba looked down despondently at his soup bowl. 

Everyone passed around worried looks, if this was true and the kakja did have a guy on their side with this power, then everything just got that much more difficult. No one seemed eager to speak.

“What happened after that?” Matsukawa prodded. 

Yahaba shook his head, still not looking up. “I could feel him pulling my powers out of me then everything went black. Next thing I know, I woke up here.”

They were quiet for a few minutes, all trying to digest what he was saying.

Akaashi frowned. “Are you sure there wasn’t anything else?”

“I… I don’t know,” Yahaba stammered and dropped his head into his hands, “It’s just, everytime I try to remember what happened, it’s like my memories go all fuzzy.” 

“Anything could help, man.” Matsukawa said in a gentle tone. 

“Actually,” he said, lifting his head to look at Akaashi. “There was something. There was a woman.” 

Akaashi sucked in a sharp, panicked breath. He had been worried about that. 

If anyone noticed his reaction, they didn’t say anything. Matsukawa was the only one who made eye contact with him, and he could read the silent message from him easy enough.  
_Play it cool._

“I don’t remember much about what she looked like,” Yahaba continued. He shook his head in frustration. “It’s all fuzzy. But if I saw her again, or if I heard her talk, I’m pretty sure I’d be able to identify her though.”

Akaashi nodded his head slowly. If Yahaba couldn’t remember what she looked like then that was good. The less Yahaba knew the better. 

“We’ll figure it out,” Iwaizumi said. “But for now let’s worry about the mission. I think we should head out in the morning.”

Akaashi blinked. “Is that a good idea? Yahaba will you be ready for that?”

“Yeah I should be fine,” Yahaba said. “I slept pretty well.”

“Akats heal quickly anyway,” Oikawa added. 

“I know that,” Akaashi said. “But I’m still concerned. Are we really ready to go out on this mission?”

“I know you’re concerned, Akaashi,” Iwaizumi said. “But we need to complete this mission. The sooner we do it, the better.”

“Yeah, but…” Akaashi started. 

“Akaashi, I’m sorry, but I’m calling it,” Iwaizumi said. “We leave in the morning.”

…

Oikawa pulled a loaf of bread out of his saddlebag and took a bite out of it, walking around the campfire as he did. They had been traveling all day, and if it had been up to Iwaizumi, they would’ve ridden through the night. In the end, Akaashi had won the argument over stopping and making camp for the night, much to the annoyance of Iwaizumi, who was currently out scouting the area and looking for firewood. Akaashi was sitting close to the fire, his maps spread out in front of him. He was studying them intently, his brow creased in concentration. Suspended over the fire by three large sticks was a pot with what Oikawa thought was some kind of stew. Akaashi had gone out earlier to collect some herbs and whatever else he could gather. Yahaba was sitting away from them, looking out to the north. Oikawa walked over and sat down next to him.

“Do you miss it?”

“Miss what?” Yahaba asked, not turning to look at him.

“Antse.”

Yahaba took a breath.

“Every now and then,” he answered. “Despite the fact Dad’s family shunned me, I did have some close friends. And life there really wasn’t so bad.”

“Do you think you’ll ever go back?” Oikawa asked. Part of him was scared to know the answer, but another part was slightly hopeful, because if Yahaba ever did go back, that meant he’d have a chance to finally see Antse. 

“Honestly, I don’t know Tooru. I haven’t been back in three years… and Dad’s family told me never to come back if I left.” He shook his head. “It’s the same thing they told Dad when he left for the Academy.”

Oikawa glanced down sadly. He knew his dad had a rocky relationship with his grandparents, but he’d been given much more details than that. His dad had left home after he turned fifteen to come train at the Academy. After graduating, he’d been sent on a mission to Aruna, where he met their mom. They had started out hating each other—part of the whole fire-elementest/water-elementest rivalry thing. But eventually they’d fallen in love and moved to the village where Yahaba and Oikawa were born. They’d lived there for ten years before the fire.

“Sometimes I dream of going back and living in our old village,” Oikawa started, only to be interrupted.

“Food is ready!” Akaashi called.

Yahaba and Oikawa turned and looked at him. Yahaba rolled his eyes but pushed himself to his feet. They made their way back over to the fire, where Akaashi had already poured Iwaizumi some soup into his bowl. Matsukawa had packed each of them their own bowl to carry in their saddlebags. Akaashi had been put in charge of the cooking pot that attached and hung off the side of one of his saddlebags.

“Looks good, Akaashi,” Yahaba said as he dug out his bowl and handed it to him. “What’s in it?”

“You’d be surprised how many natural ingredients you can find,” Akaashi said, handing Yahaba’s bowl back to him and taking Oikawa’s. “After spending nearly half of my life growing up in the lowland plains of Gelta, I picked up on a few things. There’s plenty of similar stuff here.  
Oikawa took his bowl back from Akaashi and sat down on the ground next to Yahaba. 

“What was life like in Gelta?” Iwaizumi asked. 

Akaashi paused taking a sip from his bowl to answer. 

“It was the way you’d imagine life to be,” he said. “Nothing fancy. It was mostly just my mom, Issei, and myself. Some of Mom’s family lived in the same town as us, but we didn’t see them too often.” He looked over at Iwaizumi. “What about you? Your family moved to the city, right?”  
Iwaizumi nodded. 

“After… after the village was attacked, Dad was transferred to one of the city’s bigger sectors. It wasn’t as nice as the village had been and since we were close to the main port, it was more densely populated, but it was okay.” He frowned and looked down at his soup bowl. “Kenma and I still got to go to school and everything, though the second level school there was shit compared to the village’s.”

Oikawa snorted in spite of himself. When all of their eyes turned towards him, he cursed under his breath. He had been hoping to avoid getting involved in this conversation. But too late now.

With a sigh Oikawa said, “At least you went to an ‘official’ school. Living in my family’s village, we didn’t have a real school…”

He stopped suddenly, biting back his words. He didn’t like to talk about growing up in Aruna, despite there really had been nothing wrong with it, but now it seemed like he didn’t have much of a choice. The other three were all looking at him expectantly. He sighed, took a long sip from his soup bowl, and finally spoke up.

“In my village, we only had a first level school. I went there until I was almost eleven. After that, my aunt Mari helped train me for a while, but for the most part I was on my own, since pretty much everyone in the village was a water or air elementest.”

Akaashi frowned. “But how did you get into the Academy then? Especially without a second level education?”

Oikawa tried and failed not to grimace. The story of how he actually got into the Academy was another item on his “don’t talk about” list. Fortunately, he had already prepared for this question; knowing Akaashi would have already seen his files.

“The same way you did,” he said. “I proved I was worth having around. Of course, you’re still working on that, aren’t you? Can’t be easy being an undeveloped in a developed world.”

Akaashi’s flinch was almost imperceptible, but it was a flinch all the same. Oikawa could see he’d struck a nerve. 

“How did you convince them to let you in as an IGS anyway?” Oikawa asked. “I guess having a brother who was one of the highest ranked in his class helped, huh?”

“Tooru,” Yahaba warned.

Akaashi was glaring at Oikawa from across the campfire. With the fading sunlight, the fire was really their only source of light and it reflected brightly in his eyes. For a brief moment, Oikawa regretted what he had said. But he knew Akaashi was hiding something, and he was determined to figure out what it was.

“That was it, wasn’t it? Big brother Matsukawa pulled some strings to get Akaashi into the school and one of the better specializations.”

Akaashi slammed his soup bowl down onto the ground.

“Enough Oikawa,” he snapped. “Enough.”

He took a shaky breath with closed eyes. After a few seconds of composing himself, Akaashi opened his eyes and looked straight at Oikawa.

“I’ll have you know I proved my worth the same way any of you did,” he said in a cold tone of voice. “No shortcuts, no deals made with my brother. I applied to the Academy when I was fourteen. I was accepted and started when I was fifteen. I trained my ass off to become good enough for the Intelligence Gathering specialists. And now here I am. The top of my specialty. On my first mission. About to graduate in a month. Same. As. You. Oh, and you know what? I also outrank you. Don’t forget that, Kappa.”

They glared at each other for nearly a minute until Iwaizumi cleared his throat.

“Uh, Yahaba,” he said. “What about you? What was life like in Antse?”

Akaashi turned his attention to Yahaba, but not after giving Oikawa one last look that was something like “don’t try me”, complete with a flash of his fangs. Oikawa fixed him with his most pointed glare in response before turning to Yahaba as well.

“Well, schools are different in Antse,” Yahaba started. He went on to explain how they didn’t have first or second level schools like the others did, but instead everyone was educated according to their skill levels. Yahaba said his school experience wasn’t really the norm either, since he jumped between colonies to learn how to control the other three elements. 

Oikawa couldn’t really focus on what his brother was saying though. He was distracted, thinking about that the way Akaashi had glared at me while he was going through his whole speech. He really wanted to ignore him, but he couldn’t shake the growing sense of unease. Something had been different about him when he’d looked up at him. He’d composed himself, and when he did something had changed. It may have been a trick of the campfire light, but I didn't think so. As Akaashi had glared at Oikawa, he saw his eyes change color. Normally a light green-gray, his eyes had shifted to be shades darker. 

Oikawa didn’t think either of the other two had noticed, or if they had they weren’t saying anything. When Akaashi had turned his attention from Oikawa to Yahaba, his eyes had gone back to their normal color… if they had changed at all. As Yahaba finished his story, Akaashi and Iwaizumi asked him a couple of other questions about life in Antse before Iwaizumi finally stood up and stretched. 

“It’s getting late,” he said. “I’m going to do one more quick scan of the area, just to make sure. Be back soon.”

With that, he transformed into a large owl and took off into the sky. 

“That must be a cool power to have,” Akaashi mused. He picked up his empty soup bowl and glanced around. “Uh, Yahaba, would you mind going and filling the big pot with water? That way I can clean the bowls at least. There’s a stream not too far west of here.”

Yahaba glanced between the two of them like he wasn’t really sure it was a good idea to leave them alone after our argument earlier, but he nodded and took the pot from Akaashi.

“Play nice,” he muttered to Oikawa as he walked past. Oikawa resisted the urge to stick his tongue out at him.

Akaashi scrapped what was little soup was left in the bowls into the fire. They’d all been so hungry from traveling all day that they’d eaten almost all of the soup. Oikawa sat awkwardly, watching the flames dance in the night air. He was about to get up to go find more firewood when Akaashi spoke up.

“Okay, the others are gone. If you have anything you want to say to me, I’d rather you do it now.”

Oikawa frowned at him.

“I know you’re hiding something Akaashi,” he said shortly. “I don’t know what yet, but I want you to know that if whatever this is puts our team in jeopardy in any way at all, I will make sure you pay for it.”

“Are you going to kill me, Oikawa?” he asked in an almost bored tone. But Oikawa noticed the way his hands tightened on the bowl he was holding, confirming his suspicions that he did have a secret that could potentially get all of them in trouble.

“I don’t know yet,” Oikawa answered, mimicking his tone of voice. “Depends on how bad your big secret fucks us over. Because it will eventually. I hope you realize that.”

“Same goes for yours,” Akaashi said, finally looking up to meet Oikawa’s eyes. He noticed that Akaashi’s were flickering between light and dark again, and he couldn’t help but wonder if that meant anything, or if the campfire light was playing tricks with his mind.

“My what?”

“Oh please,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Oikawa, you think I’m the only one on this team with a big secret? Because I know for a fact that you have your own specific motives for being here, and just so we’re clear: if your secret puts the team in jeopardy, be sure that I will do whatever it takes to make sure that no harm will come to Iwaizumi or Yahaba.”

Oikawa had to admit that he was a little taken back by Akaashi’s proclamation. How did he know he was hiding something? There wasn’t really any point in denying it, so he didn’t. But he couldn’t let Akaashi see he’d managed to get under his skin. Forcing a poker face, Oikawa raised his eyebrows at him.

“Okay fine, maybe I do have a secret,” Oikawa said. “But that doesn’t change anything. My threat to you still stands.”

“As mine does for you,” Akaashi replied coldly. His eyes had changed color again and were now completely a dark stormy green. The uneasy feeling in Oikawa’s gut returned, but he tried to ignore it.

“Fine, as long as we’re clear on where the other stands,” Oikawa said. 

“Fine.”

Akaashi blinked and his eyes returned to normal. Before Oikawa could think it through, he found himself asking:

“Why do they do that?”

Akaashi looked up at him with confusion. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“Your eyes,” Oikawa said. “They change color. One minute they’ll be light green-gray like they normally are, and the next they’ll be dark.”

Akaashi didn’t say anything. His eyes widened in what Oikawa assumed to be surprise, but then he shook his head. 

“No,” he said. “That can’t happen.”

“What can’t happen?” Iwaizumi asked, walking up behind Oikawa. 

Oikawa opened his mouth to tell him, but the look Akaashi gave him made him stop in his tracks. He was pleading with him, Oikawa realized. This was something he didn’t want everyone to know about. Oikawa didn’t really understand why, but if the uneasy feeling he got every time his eyes changed color had anything to do with it, then he could see why it might not be a good move to tell the other two just yet.

He was saved from having to explain to Iwaizumi by Yahaba returning. 

“Sorry it took so long,” he said. “I found the stream well enough, but while I was there, I had the idea to fill up my canteen pouch thing with water so I can use it later if need be. You know, for fighting and what-not.”

“Good plan,” Akaashi said to him. He glanced at Oikawa and mouthed quickly _thank you_.

_No problem_ , Oikawa mouthed back, smiling slightly.

“We should get some rest,” Iwaizumi said. “I’ll take…”

“No, you won’t take first watch,” Akaashi said firmly. “Out of all of us, you have had the least amount of sleep in the past twenty-four hours. Let someone else take first watch. You sleep.”

“I’ll do it,” Oikawa volunteered. 

“Sounds good to me,” Yahaba said, leaning back against his saddle. “I’ll take second. Wake me up in a few hours.”

He was snoring within seconds.

Akaashi and Iwaizumi agreed Akaashi would take third watch and Iwaizumi would take fourth, then they both settled down to sleep as well.

Oikawa sat there alone with just his thoughts, listening for anything out of the ordinary. It was a quiet night, and as the fire died out it got to be a bit chilly. He wrapped himself in his saddle blanket and thought about his conversation with Akaashi. 

So not only did they both have secrets of their own to deal with, but now they had the mutual agreement of not talking about Akaashi’s eyes changing color as well. Oikawa still wasn’t completely sure why Akaashi didn’t want to talk about it, but judging from his reaction, it definitely meant something. He just wasn’t sure what it meant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments, kudos, etc are greatly appreciated!!


	4. Fights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa and Yahaba make a bad decision.

Oikawa honestly couldn’t have been asleep for more than a couple of minutes before he woke up to every single one of his senses screaming about an unseen danger. He bolted to a sitting position, catching the attention of and a strange look from Yahaba, who was still on watch duty.

Yahaba looked like he was about to say something, but Oikawa held up his hand to keep him quiet. He closed his eyes and reached out with his telekinesis, sensing the world around him and trying to figure out what the threat was. His other senses were still going crazy, and he knew that something was definitely not okay. 

Sensing things with his telekinesis was a trick Oikawa had learned at the Academy, but truth be told it was just one of the many things he’d developed from mimicking the water and air elementests in Aruna. He’d gotten the idea behind it from the air elementest ability to sense densities in the air or places where solid things blocked the airflow. He figured that if they could do that, then surely he could use his telekinesis to sense his surroundings. Telekinesis after all (or at least the way Oikawa used it) was about extending yourself out into the air or space and understanding the space and lack of space in your environment and… actually never mind. That’s too complicated to try and explain. 

The point is, Oikawa could sense what’s around him up to a certain distance (he hadn’t yet figured out his limit).

Oikawa extended his right hand outward.

“Tooru?” Yahaba asked timidly. 

“Shh!” Oikawa hissed. “There’s someone in the woods. And I doubt they’re very friendly.”

“What?” Yahaba asked, sounding alarmed. “Should I wake the others?”

“Don’t bother,” Oikawa said, dropping his hand. “I want to find out who this person is myself.”

He opened his eyes and jumped to his feet.

“Tooru, are you insane?!” Yahaba asked.

“Probably, but that’s an argument for another day,” Oikawa said. He glanced in the direction he could sense the person in. “Question is, Shi-chan, are you coming with me?”

“Geez Tooru.” Oikawa could feel him roll his eyes at him. “You don’t really give me much of a choice. Someone has to keep your idiot ass from getting killed. But I really think we should wake up Iwaizumi and Akaashi.”

“I am not bringing along those two killjoys to help deal with something we can easily handle ourselves. Besides, just one of us alone is more powerful than the two of them combined. They would just get in the way.”

Yahaba gave resigned sigh. 

“Even so,” he said. “I don’t really want to see their reaction if they wake up and find us gone.”

Oikawa lifted his hands, giving up on persuading him to follow along with him. 

“Whatever Yahaba,” Oikawa said. “You sit here and babysit the sleeping killjoys, while I go find something to beat up.”

Oikawa started walking in the direction of the woods, only to have Yahaba reach up and grab his arm.

“Tooru, please,” he said.

“Shigeru, I’m done discussing this with you,” Oikawa said, pulling his arm away. “I’m going. You can come along if you want, but you aren’t convincing me to stay here.”

Yahaba frowned, staring at the place where the fire had been. Then, with another sigh, he stood up.

“Just to keep you from getting yourself in trouble,” he said.

Oikawa grinned at him, then led the way into the woods.

…

They surprised him, and that’s not something that is easily done. Yahaba and Oikawa were within a few miles of the kakja camp before Oikawa felt a surge of energy around them, one several times larger than the trace they’d been following. Automatically the two went back-to-back, both of them slipping into fighting stances. 

“Hey,” a harsh, gravelly voice bark from above, “look like it’s going to be easy hunting tonight, guys.” A tremor ran through the ground, as Oikawa felt and heard thuds as several pairs of feet impacted heavily with the packed dirt of the forest floor. 

“They just came right to us,” a higher pitched, nasally voice said snidely. 

They watched as four figures emerged from the dark woods. Even though it was dark, Oikawa recognized one of the guys as the runner they’d faced earlier. Oikawa glanced between the other three and took in as many details as he could about them, but it was difficult with the lack of light.

“Hey, you’re that guy!” Yahaba exclaimed, pointing at one of the guys. This one, from what Oikawa could see in the dim moonlight, was muscular with dark ebony skin.  
“The one who knocked me out earlier.”

“Glad you figured that out,” the guy said. He turned to the three others with him, “Surround them,” he grunted.

His team answered instantaneously, encircling Oikawa and his brother on all sides. But just as they moved into position, so did they.

Yahaba and Oikawa moved in a slow rotation, keeping the four attackers in their vision, completely in sync with each other’s movement. Oikawa thought back to the Academy, back to a lesson he’d received in partner combat training. The trainer had told them about a level of fighting that surpassed what could be learned; of something that was a type of taboo in the world of fighting, yet was something that happened on the rarest of occasions. What he spoke of was an innate connection the linked two fighters, his words being, _“When they move it looks like a dance, like a secret language that only the two of them know.”_

Oikawa rolled his eyes at the thought that anything as poetic and graceful could ever be applied to his brother and himself, yet at the same time, there was a little thought in the back of my mind, that maybe that might just be what Yahaba and he were doing right now. Despite never having been in a combat situation with Yahaba, he just knew. He knew his patterns, the way he was moving and breathing, the weight he had resting on the balls of his feet, the tenseness of his muscles. Everything. It was surreal, and Oikawa wondered if he could feel the same about him too. 

Oikawa shook his head, clearing out the thoughts and gearing up for what they were about to face. 

“Easy hunting?” Oikawa smirked, taking stock of their opponents as he talked, trying to assess what they were up against. He cocked his head and put on a mask of innocent confusion. “I don’t see any of that around here.” 

A grin crept out from the corner of his mouth as he turned to the guy who’d attacked Yahaba. He tried to remember his name. Yahaba had told them, but no matter how hard Oikawa tried, he couldn’t recall it. “Unless you’re referring to yourself, that is.”

Oikawa could barely make out his face, but his voice betrayed the reaction that he’d hoped for. 

“You have no idea who you’re dealing with.” His voice tight and filled with anger. 

Oh. Nakamura. That was his name. 

“Really?” Oikawa retorted. “Because right now it doesn’t look like much.” His grin broadened when he heard a low guttural growl escape his lips. 

“He’s mine,” Nakamura ground out. Then to the others: “You take the other one. Use sedation if you need to. Remember she wants them alive.”

“Well isn’t that encouraging,” Yahaba grumbled under his breath.

“This is getting old,” Oikawa sighed. “Let’s dance, pretty boy.” 

And with that the fight began. 

…

Sugawara looked at the group Kenma had gathered together in his room. _How_ he had managed to get Kuroo and Bokuto onto Academy grounds, Suga didn’t know, but frankly he didn’t need to know. Kuroo probably had something to do with it anyway. 

“Kenma, are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked.

Kenma didn’t look up from his notebook, but nodded. “It’s the only idea I have, so it’s going to have to work.”

“Well I trust him,” Kuroo said from where he was leaning against the desk. “The kid seems to have a good head on his shoulders. I say follow what he says.”

“I’m not a kid,” Kenma argued quietly. “Only a year younger than you.”

“I like the plan,” Bokuto chimed in. “When are we going?”

Suga groaned internally. 

“For everyone else’s sake, I hope this works out,” he said. 

He really, really did. 

…

Oikawa had to admit, as much as this situation royally sucked, there was also a part of him that loved it. Reveled in it. There was nothing in this world like the feeling of coming alive during a fight. The electricity running down his spine, heat rushing into his arms and filling his fingertips as his powers woke up with adrenaline. 

Oikawa’s feet were light on the ground as he ran at his opponent, his heart pounding in his ears. 

He felt it before he heard it. On the edge of what he could feel with his powers. It was dark, swirling, and powerful. More powerful than anything he’d ever felt in his whole life. 

With a flash the forest lit up with a harsh light. Blues and purples, a lightning flash of darkness. He had his hand outstretched, much like Oikawa held his when using his powers. The bolt of darkness shot towards him like a bullet out of a gun. If it wasn’t for his powers, Oikawa would’ve died then and there. Instead, Oikawa managed to dodge the bolt, jumping up in the air and rolling as it passed underneath him. As soon as his feet touched down another one came hurtling towards him. 

He dove and rolled behind the nearest tree, covering his head, fully expecting the blast to obliterate the tree into a million splinters. Instead a sick feeling entered his stomach as he gagged. He turned around, still crouched behind the tree, or what was left of the tree. He looked up and down, bewildered at what he saw. The tree had not been torn to pieces as he expected it would be. Instead it was decaying, as if it had absorbed the blast and it was sucking every bit of life out of the tree. Oikawa could feel it happening, too. It made him want to wretch and let go of everything he’d eaten that day. The tree, every little piece of it that he could sense, was dying. The life being sucked out so fast that it made his head spin. 

_What the hell is happening?_ Oikawa fought to control his breathing, knowing he would have to move soon. _I can’t let him hit anyone. Get it together Tooru._

He ran in a crouch, coming out from behind the now withered tree. 

“Hey!” he shouted at Nakamura. “That’s a pretty cool trick you have there!” 

The air lit up behind him, Nakamura’s bolts striking mere inches behind him as he continued running, trying to circle back to the clearing they had started in.  
Oikawa could feel exactly where he was, where everything was around him. So he knew when Nakamura stopped, when the energy ceased to crackle, smoking at his fingertips. 

Oikawa kept running, wondering at the same time why he’d stopped. A few more bounding steps and he was back into the clearing. He could still sense him, and knew that Nakamura was standing, unmoving, in the same position he was a few heartbeats ago. Oikawa skidded to a stop, his heels digging into the earth. The voice of his drill instructor rang loud and clear in his ears, “Stop moving, Oikawa. Stop, Breathe, and Listen. In battle you don’t have time to think, so when you have a chance to analyze, take it.”

So he did just that.

_Inhale_. Oikawa smelled the forest, blood, and sweat…all mingling together. _Exhale_. He strained his ears. He heard the breathing of his opponent, fast and shallow. Harsh from chasing him. There’s something else too, on the edge of his senses. 

_Yahaba._

Oikawa sharpened his senses, zoomed them in. He closed his eyes and took another breath. Yahaba was still fighting. Two of his attackers were down, and he and the last one, the one with the nasally voice, were circling each other. 

Oikawa took off in his brother’s direction. _They’ll have to try harder than that if they want to separate us._ As he approached them he slowed his pace, stepped lighter, and breathed softer. 

“I bet Nakamura has already finished off your brother,” the nasally voice sneered. 

Speaking of Nakamura, he was still standing in the spot that Oikawa had left him. 

_Why did he just stop fighting like that?_

“You don’t know anything about us,” Yahaba snarled. “Tooru’s probably already finished him off and is on his way here now.” 

Well, he wasn’t completely wrong. 

Why wasn’t he attacking him? Oikawa could see them better now that clouds have moved and allowed the moonlight to filter through the trees. As he moved Oikawa saw  
the muscles in his legs and arms protruding, coiled in preparation to attack. 

But still he talked.

“You know nothing, Yahaba.” He spat out his last name like it was poison. “Once we capture the two of you it’s just the beginning.”  
“The beginning of what?” Yahaba growled, his voice low. 

“Like that’s any of your business!”

As he said that Oikawa saw movement behind Yahaba. The other two goons he’d taken care of earlier were starting to wake up. 

_He’s stalling,_ Oikawa realized. 

The tall beefy one got to his feet, but Yahaba didn’t. Panic threatened to take control of Oikawa, but he pushed it back. He would have to time his move perfectly if it was going to work. He watched him shake his head, then, as he raised his foot to walk towards Yahaba Oikawa shot. The ball sized rock Oikawa hurled at him hits him square in the chest. Oikawa heard several cracks as his ribs break and he falls back on the ground unmoving. 

The other guy Yahaba was facing swiveled his head around, a wild look in his eyes as he looked to see where the boulder came from. 

Yahaba closed his eyes, relaxed his shoulders. Then with a wicked grin he blasted a gust of wind that knocked the other backwards fifty feet and smacked him into a tree. 

He jogged over to him, then crouched where he lay unconscious. 

“Told you so.” Oikawa saw him straighten and he looked at where he was, still in the tree line.

“Hey Tooru, pretty good timing you have there.” Oikawa jogged over to meet him halfway. 

“I was just giving you a second to catch your breath. Besides, I can’t let them have all the fun.” He grinned and jerked his head towards the other two unconscious attackers. “Anyway, that’s enough excitement for one night. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Not so fast,” a deep voice growled behind them. Nakamura.

Oikawa spun to face him, Yahaba doing the same. Oikawa was tired of running, and it was time for this to end. 

Without saying a word Yahaba and Oikawa went at him, a wordless understanding of each other flowing from Oikawa’s body to Yahaba’s. 

Yahaba ran straight towards him, fire on his fingertips, lighting up the trees around us. Nakamura engaged, throwing blasts of his dark-energy at Yahaba as he ran towards him. 

Oikawa used Yahaba’s attack to run back into the tree line, circling behind Nakamura. As he ran he unhooked a circle of wire from his belt, something he always carried with him. As he came up behind Nakamura he threw the wire in the air, unraveling it and stretching it in front of him. Oikawa held the wire about ten feet in front, and above. Yahaba still had Nakamura engaged in combat. Oikawa burst out of the trees, not bothering to be quiet, and yelled:

“Hey Nakamura!” 

He didn’t turn, but Oikawa sensed a break in his movements. That was all Yahaba needed. The ground underneath Nakamura shook, then exploded upwards, shooting him straight up into the air. Oikawa thrust out his hands, the wire moving with them, as Nakamura flailed his way back to the earth his wire shot out, wrapping first around his arms, pinning them to his sides, then wrapped down from there, seizing his entire body. Just as he was about to impact on the forest floor Oikawa jerked his chin, catching him and holding him there with his telekinesis. Oikawa reached out with his telekinesis, pushing my powers to their full extent. Oikawa felt Nakamura’s body. His chest heaving, sweat pouring off his muscular frame. He pulled the weapons off of his body, able to sense where they were by feeling the difference between hot skin and cold feel of metal. 

Two knives, a dagger, and a capped syringe fell to the ground with muted thumps. Oikawa held Nakamura where he was. 

“Huh, let’s see what we have here?”

Oikawa flicked his hand and the weapons on the ground flew to stand at attention in front of me. Oikawa ran his fingers over the dagger, tested the grips on the hilts of the knives.

“This is some high class stuff you have here, Nakamura.” he snatched the dagger and twirled it between his fingers. “Oh and look! This one has an inscription!”  
The dagger was lying flat on his palm as he squinted at the inscription, trying to make out the words with the moonlight that trickled through the treetops. It was useless, he couldn’t read what the dagger said. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting the feel of the dagger, the rough edges, the cool bite of the metal, everything about it fill his mind. He felt along the tip of it and worked his way down to the base of the blade, where the inscription was. 

_There._

He felt the start of the inscription, the dip in the metal, the worn grooves and edges. It read, 

_UNTIL THEY BREAK._

Well that was reassuring. 

He let the dagger drop from his hand, making it fly, end over end, till the hard point of it was a millimeter away from Nakamura’s forehead. 

He didn’t flinch. 

“What’s so great about this dagger?” Oikawa said, his voice mocking. “Was it a present from a special someone?” He emphasized the last two words. “What’s with the fancy inscription?”

At this Nakamura smirked at him, a wry twist of his lips, yet still said nothing.

“Tooru, we need to go back,” Yahaba said, his voice firm. “It’s going to be light soon, and honestly I don’t really want to get on Akaashi and Iwaizumi’s bad sides. We’re going to be in enough trouble when they find out we ditched out on watch duty.” 

“Yeah?” Oikawa said. “And what about them?” He nodded his head towards Nakamura and his unconscious friends. 

“They won’t be waking up for a while, so don’t worry about them,” Yahaba allowed a small smile. “And as for this one, we’ll take him with us. I’m sure Akaashi would love to interrogate him about that weird power he has.”

“Whatever you say, little brother.” Oikawa smirked and started towards Yahaba, Nakamura trailing ten feet in the air up and behind him. They walked to the edge of the clearing, side by side. Yahaba turned his head towards Oikawa and said:

“Oh and another thing I meant to--”

He cut off with a small cry of pain. He clutched his neck, then his eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped to the ground like a rock. 

“Shigeru!” Oikawa screamed, dropping to his knees beside him. He grabbed at his neck, trying to see what was wrong. 

“Yahaba, wake up!” Oikawa shook his shoulders. A thud sounded behind him, and it registered in his panicked mind that it was Nakamura. No time to worry about him, he was tied up. Oikawa had to figure out what was wrong with Yahaba.

A throaty chuckle sounded behind me. Oikawa whirled around. 

“Didn’t they teach you anything at your Academy?” Oikawa heard a voice sneer. His head whipped around, but he didn’t see anyone except for Nakamura lying immobile on the ground in front of him. He moved to stand in front of his unconscious brother.

“Who are you?!” Oikawa shouted at the woods. He reached out my power fanning out over the clearing. _There_. He was standing twenty feet away to his right. Oikawa’s eyes ravaged the area, yet his eyes saw nothing to confirm the person he felt moving and stalking towards him. _He’s invisible_. 

Oikawa let his eyes rove in the other direction, his heart pounding in his ears. He couldn’t let him know that he knew where he was. He realized that this was probably the same invisible person that had been with this group yesterday when they were attacked. He hadn’t sensed him there until it was too late, but now he was positive that it was the same person.

“Who am I?” His voice was sickly sweet. “Oh no one really, what matters is who you are. You and your dear brother, that is.”

_Keep her talking, make a plan._

“What do you want with my brother and me?” Oikawa did his best to push his fear away, while still hiding the fact that he knew where he was.  
“If you think you can hurt us…” he swallowed the bile that rose in his throat as he forced himself to sound like he wasn’t absolutely panicking right now. Yahaba was unconscious, Oikawa could sense that easily. But he couldn’t tell what had made him lose consciousness. Fortunately, hiding my fear and most other emotions was something Oikawa was good at. It was something he’d been doing for a long time, ever since…

_Now’s not the time for reminiscing, Tooru._ Oikawa scolded himself. _Focus. You have to get Shigeru out of here._

He laughed, loud, deep, and clear. “So this is the great, Oikawa Tooru! I honestly was expecting more.”

Oikawa closed his eyes. They were no good against an invisible opponent anyways. 

“You _disgust me_ ,” he spat. “However, I know more about you than you think.”

Oikawa’s eyes flew open.

“Oh that’s right,” he laughed, “I know all about you little telekinesis sensing whatever.”

How the hell did he know about that? 

“What exactly _is_ your point?” Oikawa demanded, dropping the fearful facade. “Because honestly, I’m getting rather tired of standing here being lectured to.”

“I’m going to be taking you and your brother to our compound where you will tell us every military secret you know and betray your leaders.” Oikawa could feel him grin.

“Over my dead body,” he snarled, tensing to attack him. 

“Oh there’ll be plenty of time for that later! Right now though, you’re going to come with me.” He said this all in such a pleasant tone, it made Oikawa want to vomit.

“Like hell I am.” Oikawa flew at her, Nakamura’s blades gripped in his hands, the dagger in my belt. 

His stayed motionless as he said, “Unless you want your brother to die within the next hour you will stop and you will come with me.”

Oikawa stopped dead in his tracks, growling, “What did you do to him?” 

“Nothing that can’t be reversed,” he paused, “As long as you do exactly what I say.” The glee in his voice repulsed me, but Oikawa snarled back,

“You’re lying.” 

Oikawa looked back at Yahaba’s unmoving silhouette; crumpled on the ground, doubt creeping its way into his heart.

“I assure you I am not.” He took a step forward, Oikawa didn’t move. He kept his senses locked on him, to make sure he wouldn’t surprise him, since he obviously had no desire to make himself visible anytime soon.

He turned and started walking in a circle around him. 

“What your brother is currently dying of is a highly concentrated dose of Nakamura’s energy burning through his veins and dissolving his very essence. Normally, one of his blasts is enough to kill an average powered person. For someone like you,” he nodded his head towards Yahaba, “or him, it takes something a little more strong.” 

He stopped behind Oikawa’s right shoulder. He could feel him breathing on his back. “We found out that his power flows in his veins. It’s extraordinary really. A power that has, in the history of Ahkajir, never before occurred. He’s a bit like you, actually.” He smirked. “An anomaly, rare, and powerful beyond imagining. Too bad he’s going to outlive you.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Oh well, these things must happen.”

He stalked back around to stand in front of Oikawa. “And you, Oikawa-kun, are going to come with me because it is the only way that your precious brother is going to live.” He took a step closer, inches from his face, and breathed the words: “And we both know that you’ll do anything for you family, isn’t that right?”  
He sneered at the end, letting the words sink into the deep recesses of Oikawa’s mind, knocking up against memories that he’d long since buried. 

Oikawa closed his eyes as the memories fought against their walls, attacking him with a barrage of pain and stabbing light. 

Oikawa screwed his eyes open, forcing the memories back into submission, back where they couldn’t touch him. 

“Do you swear he will live?” Oikawa’s voice was wound as tight as my body.

“Of course!” he said happily. “Why else do you think we’d be going through all this trouble to capture you two? _We need you alive_.”

He spun around and started walking out of the clearing. He stopped halfway across when he realized that Oikawa wasn’t moving.

“Well let’s go!” His voice was edging on impatient. “Do you want him to die or not?”

Oikawa blinked once, slowly. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t go with him. 

_You have to or Yahaba will die._

They’d just found each other. Oikawa wasn’t going to let him die.

Oikawa turned on his heel and walked back to where Yahaba was lying. His breath was shallow as he laid his ear against his chest. His heart was beating faintly, slowly. Oikawa leaned by his ear, breathing the words I knew he couldn’t hear,

“I’m sorry, Yahaba.” Oikawa’s voice caught in his throat, damn emotions. There was a good reason he always hid them, because when he didn’t they got in the way. Oikawa rested his head against the side of Yahaba’s, “But I can’t let you die here. I’m so sorry.”

With that Oikawa got on his knees, kneeling beside him. He grabbed one of Yahaba’s arms and pulled it over his shoulder, then the other. He was draped limply across Oikawa’s shoulders, arms dangling on one side and legs off the other. It was a struggle to stand, but Oikawa didn’t care. He’d carried heavier on his back in training. Also, he couldn’t bring himself to use his powers on him, to let him trail along limply in the air beside him like he’d been carrying Nakamura mere minutes ago. He needed to know that he was still breathing, to be able to feel his heart beating. He was not going to lose him. Not when he was the only family he had left.  
Oikawa stood as tall as his brother’s weight allowed me and looked the other dead in the eyes, not needing to see them to know where they were.

“I’m ready. Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave comments, kudos, or subscribe! They warm our little hearts!


	5. Powers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa and Yahaba are missing, now Iwaizumi and Akaashi have to figure out what do to. Luckily Kenma has a plan.

“Iwaizumi, wake up.” 

Iwaizumi blinked his eyes open and looked up to see Akaashi hovering over top of him.

“Akaashi? What are you…”

“Where are Oikawa and Yahaba?”

Akaashi had a very serious expression on his face as Iwaizumi sat up. 

“I woke up and they were gone,” he continued. “Do you know where they might be?”

Iwaizumi shook his head and looked down at his watch. It was eight in the morning. He should’ve been woken up hours ago for his turn at watch duty. 

“Did Yahaba ever wake you up for your watch?” he asked Akaashi. 

“No… no he didn’t,” he answered, glancing down at his own watch. He looked back up, the concern still on his face. “Iwaizumi, something’s wrong.”

“I’m sure it’s all perfectly fine...”

“No I mean, something is really wrong. It’s not fine.”

“What do you think happened?” Iwaizumi asked, standing up and looking closely where Yahaba and Oikawa had been sleeping. It didn’t look like they’d been taken away by force. 

Akaashi walked over to the edge of the woods and then back to the campsite. He was muttering to himself the whole time. 

“Okay, so Oikawa woke Yahaba up and then he tried to go to sleep, but then woke up shortly after when he… oh I don’t know. Did he sense something in the woods?”

“What are you talking about?” Iwaizumi asked. 

Akaashi turned around startled. “Was I talking out loud? Ugh, I’m sorry. I was just… you know. Doing my IGS job. Trying to figure out what happened.”

“That was extremely detailed,” Iwaizumi said, eyebrows raising in question.

“Yeah, well I’m good at my job,” Akaashi grunted, crossing his arms and turning away from Iwaizumi to where he could just barely see his face. “Anyway, I think I know what happened. They sensed something wrong in woods, went to check it out and then…” he paused, closing his eyes in concentration. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes wide, panic set on his face.

“And then they were captured.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean just that,” Akaashi said. “They were captured by the kakja during the night.”

“What but… how? And how did you know that?” Iwaizumi gaped at him. Then he remembered something Matsukawa had told him last year after he had graduated and right before he had left for Rhymeer. 

“Akaashi…” Iwaizumi rolled the words around in his head, wondering if he should even voice them, “did you figure that out with your powers?”

Akaashi spun around, his forehead wrinkled as he shot him an incredulous look, “You know I don’t have powers, Iwaizumi.”

“Yes, you do Akaashi,” Iwaizumi stated. “Matsukawa told me everything, back before he was transferred to Rhymeer. You see… at the time we thought Kenma was going to apply for the academy, but I was worried because we’d never told anyone about his powers…”

“Kenma’s powers?” Akaashi asked. “But… he isn’t a shape-shifter like the rest of your family?”

He hesitated while saying the last sentence. Iwaizumi could tell he knew more than he was letting on. Still, Iwaizumi also knew that this wasn’t going to be easy for him, so he didn’t call him out on it.

“No,” Iwaizumi said with a sigh. “He’s… look, if I tell you about him, you have to tell me the truth about yourself.”

“No need,” Akaashi said resignedly. “I know what you’re talking about. Kenma… I remember his orientation, before he decided not to go to the Academy. He claimed herself as an undeveloped, but Sugawara Koushi and I both knew he wasn’t.”

Iwaizumi couldn’t help but chuckle at the mention of Sugawara. He’d been his best friend growing up, after Oikawa. They’d both made the decision to go the the Academy together, despite the fact they knew they’d be different specializations since Sugawara was telepathic. Suga had become an IGS when they first arrived at the academy and 

Iwaizumi had become a PCS. After graduation they had both stuck around at the academy, Suga to help train new IGSs, and Iwaizumi as an officer recruit. 

Obviously, as an IGS himself, Akaashi would’ve known Suga as well. 

“Sugawara… yeah, he was one of the few people at the academy who knew Kenma’s secret, mostly because it’s impossible to keep any kind of secret from him.” Iwaizumi shrugged. “He found out years ago, but he’s never told anyone. Honestly, it was nice having him as a confidant.”

“Right,” Akaashi said. “He was one of the few who knew my secret as well.”

Iwaizumi took a breath. “Look, Akaashi, I know Matsukawa never actually cleared it with you to tell me about your powers but if it makes you feel better, he didn’t actually tell what your powers were… just that you had them.”

Akaashi pulled at his fingers for a moment before sighing and dropping his hands. 

“Fine. But you can’t say anything about this to anyone.”

“Your secret is safe with me.” Iwaizumi said. 

Akaashi sighed and slowly sucked in a breath. 

“So my powers… have you ever heard of an ime?”

Iwaizumi shook his head. “No. What is that?”

“It translates to memory keeper,” Akaashi explained. “It’s one of the three sights. The sight for the past. I can sense the memories of anyone I come in contact with, or even sometimes pull strong memories from whatever place I am. I also… well I also never forget anything unless I deliberately make myself which is kind of a long and difficult process and isn’t really permanent anyway so most of the time I don’t bother. I don’t have the best control over them.” He shook his head. “But what matters right now is finding Oikawa and Yahaba, and my powers can do that.”

Iwaizumi nodded his head once, understanding, “You can fill me in on the rest later,” he swung around and scooped up his pack. “Let’s go get our friends.”

...

After they’d been running for a while, Akaashi slid to a stop in front of Iwaizumi.

“I lost it,” he panted.

“Lost the trail? How do you lose memories?”

He pulled at his fingers again, “I don’t know, but they’re gone. It’s like...” He sucked in a breath and waved a hand through the air, trying to find the words. “Like   
something is blocking me.”

“Something is blocking you?” Iwaizumi asked, raising an eyebrow.

Akaashi nodded. “Or someone. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, I know, but it’s almost as if someone knew I’d be able to trace their memories and…” Akaashi’s eyes widened as he let out a startling string of swear words that made Iwaizumi raise his eyebrows. 

“What is it?” Iwaizumi asked, scared to know the answer.

“I know who took them,” Akaashi muttered, pacing. “It’s the same people who attacked us before.”

“Do you know who they are?”

He grimaced as his eyes darted away from Iwaizumi’s, “I can’t be sure, all I have right now are impressions. ”

Iwaizumi frowned, knowing that Akaashi was hiding something, but not really wanting to push him into telling him. 

“Okay, well can you tell me why they would capture the other two?” Iwaizumi asked.

“The only logical reason I can think of is that since Yahaba grew up in Antse, they want him for information. I don’t know about Oikawa, it might just be because he was with Yahaba.”

“Can you see how they captured them?” Iwaizumi continued. Akaashi shook his head, some of the fire draining from his eyes. 

Iwaizumi fought to keep the frustration from surfacing. This was his first mission officially as a mission leader, which made Oikawa and Yahaba his responsibility, and he’d failed them. Still, though, his mind bucked against the notion that anyone could’ve captured the two of them. Fighting separate they were extremely dangerous, but   
together, he’d seen them in their tandem training, together they were lethal and unstoppable, a force of nature that ripped through everything in their path. 

Iwaizumi shook his head. Where had that thought come from? He’d never seen the two of them train together before.

_Are you so sure about that, Iwaizumi?_

Iwaizumi jumped, briefly wondering where that voice had come from before realizing he’d heard it in his mind. Growing up with a telepathic best friend did have it perks at times.

_Who are you?_ he thought back.

Iwaizumi heard the other person chuckle. Then they said:

_Don’t worry. I’m a friend. I’ve come to help._

Akaashi looked at Iwaizumi oddly, probably because he hadn’t said anything in while… or he’d completely ignored his explanation for how someone could’ve captured the two of them.

“Iwaizumi are you o…” his voice trailed off as he stared at something behind me. Iwaizumi turned to look and as soon as his did my jaw dropped open. 

Standing at the edge of the woods behind them, petting _his_ horse was a guy about his age. Akaashi’s horse was on a lead rope a few paces behind him. Iwazumi guessed he had come from their camp, where they had been in such a rush they’d left the horses behind. Fortunately, they had left them untied last night so they could graze, and they’d already taken off the saddles while making camp.

The mystery guy was taller than Akaashi, with messy black that stuck up in all sort of direction and golden eyes that were focused on Iwaizumi with a mysterious glint.

“Hi you two,” he said, smirking. “The name’s Kuroo. I’m here to help you find your missing friends. Oh, and also eventually save the world, if you guys are into that sort of thing.”

Akaashi reacted before Iwaizumi did. In a split second he had pulled out his gun, clicked the safety off, cocked it, and was pointing it at Kuroo’s head.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked.

Kuroo looked at him with feigned confusion.

“Are you kidding me? I just told you who I am. Don’t you listen?”

“You told me a name,” Akaashi said slowly. “And not even a full one at that. Not helpful.”

Kuroo sighed and flicked his wrist. Akaashi’s gun went flying from his hand, leaving Akaashi staring at him in shock, speechless.

“Wait,” Iwaizumi said. “You’re telekinetic?”

“Yeah? Your point being?” Kuroo responded in a bored tone. He glanced over at Akaashi. “Look, I get it. You’re a trained IGS. You like to get the facts before you start trusting someone. Of course, speaking from my perspective, pointing a loaded gun at someone’s face probably isn’t the best way to earn their trust.”

Akaashi grumbled a few unflattering words towards Kuroo while Iwaizumi studied him a bit more closely. 

He was bothered by the fact he couldn’t get a solid read on him. Normally he was able to figure a lot about people just by studying them for a few seconds, but Kuroo was different. He couldn’t read him. As a leader he prided himself on his quick thinking, but right now all of Iwaizumi’s attention was split between focusing on the curve of his smile, and wondering if he was going to kill them. 

Kuroo turned to look at Iwaizumi, a cheeky smirk on his face.

_I take that as a compliment Hajime._

“It was you?!” Iwaizumi balked. “You were the person in my head?”

Kuroo chuckled. “Well, duh! I mean, do you see any other deadly guys with an amazing smile?”

Unbidden, images of Oikawa and Sugawara flashed in Iwaizumi’s mind, causing him to stumble across my words, “I uh…” Thankfully Akaashi seemed to have found words that weren’t swears to use. 

“You’re a telepath?” he asked incredulously. “And telekinetic? How?”

Kuroo shrugged. “Long story, don’t really have time to explain it all. All you guys need to know is that I can do a lot with my powers.”

Akaashi crossed his arms over his chest. “Is this supposed to make us trust you?” he asked. 

“Honestly I don’t care if you trust me or not,” Kuroo retorted. “I just came here because I knew you guys were going to need some help.”

Iwaizumi frowned. He could tell Kuroo wasn’t telling the whole truth, but at the same time he wasn’t lying. Iwaizumi took a breath.

“Akaashi, I think we should trust him.”

Akaashi turned to Iwaizumi with an appalled look.

“What are you talking about Iwaizumi? We just met him. He’s telekinetic _and_ telepathic, which should be impossible! How can you say that we should trust him?!”

“Look, I know it’s crazy, and Kuroo’s right, I don’t have time to explain it, but Akaashi, I know what I’m talking about. I can tell Kuroo is being… well, mostly truthful,” Iwaizumi shot a disapproving look at Kuroo. “And I expect that we’ll hear the whole truth eventually.”

Kuroo waved his hand dismissively to his prompting. “Sure, whatever. Can we go now?”

“Go where?” Akaashi asked.

“You’ll see,” Kuroo said with a smirk. 

Then Kuroo snapped his fingers and their world flipped upside down.

...

Suga watched as Iwaizumi and Akaashi landed in the middle of the floor in Matsukawa’s bunker. Kuroo, on the other hand, walked through his portal with a smug look on his face. 

Iwaizumi sat up with a groan, looking over at Akaashi.

“Akaashi, are you okay?” 

Akaashi shook his head, jumped to his feet and sprinted towards the bathroom.

“First time is always the worse,” Kuroo remarked casually as he sat down in one of the chairs. 

“How did you do that?” Iwazumi asked. 

Kuroo smirked. “Because I’m me, that’s why.”

“What are you a teleporter too?” Iwaizumi asked. 

“He creates portals,” Suga explained. Iwaizumi looked up at him and relief flooded onto his face. 

_Koushi._ His thoughts flowed into Suga’s mind easily. Suga almost sighed at the feeling of having his friend’s presence in his mind again. 

_Hey Hajime,_ Suga thought back, a small smile on his face. 

“Hey enough with the private telepathy convos,” Kuroo piped in. “But for your information, yes, I can create portals. It’s a very convenient mode of transportation.”

A groan from the direction of the bathroom pulled all of their attention in that direction as Akaashi walked out. 

“What… the… hell?” he asked. “Kuroo, what the hell?”

“Sorry?” Kuroo asked, not sounding completely sincere. 

Akaashi held a hand up and shook his head. “Don’t. I don’t care how you’re able to be a telepath, telekinetic, and also be able to create portals. Just… next time, warn me   
before you throw me through a portal.”

“Kuro, I told you to play nice,” Kenma said from behind Suga. 

“Kenma!” Iwaizumi said, jumping to his and running over to his brother. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m helping,” Kenma said. 

“Did you see something?” Iwaizumi asked, looking at Kenma with concern. Suga could hear his thoughts running a mile a minute, trying to figure out what was going on. 

Kenma looked up through his hair and nodded slowly. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Iwaizumi asked softly. 

“It wouldn’t have helped to begin with. But now it will.”

_Trust him, Hajime,_ Suga said. _He’s doing the best he can._

Iwaizumi sighed and nodded. “Okay,” he said. “What’s your plan.”

“Hey hey hey are we going over the plan?” 

Suga tried not to sigh at the sound of Bokuto running down the stairs and shouting out at them.

“Koutarou, please calm down,” Kenma said. 

“Who is that?” Akaashi asked from the place he was standing next to Kuroo. 

“Oh that’s Bokuto Koutarou,” Kuroo answered. “They’re Oikawa and Yahaba’s cousin.”

“That’s me,” Bokuto said proudly. 

“Right,” Kenma said. “Anyway my plan. Uh… Koushi, will you explain?”

“Okay yeah,” Suga said. He stepped forward as the others settled in to hear the plan. “Kenma’s plan…”

…

“So that’s where Oikawa and Yahaba are being held?”

As it turned out, the “kakja encampment” they’d been sent to investigate was an extremely large building, built out in the middle of nowhere.

Four stories high, the building was twice as long as it as wide. It was surrounded on all sides by a tall, barbed wire fence. It was hard to see from where they were standing, but behind the building there seemed to be some kind of drilling field. It honestly looked like a typical military outpost, if it weren’t for the smothering pressure of dark energy in the air.

Kuroo had teleported them all there after they’d managed to map out a solid enough plan, which had taken most of the morning.

Iwaizumi refocused on the kakja building. The dark energy surrounding it put him on edge, and he could tell by the way he was fidgeting that Suga was feeling the same way. Neither Akaashi nor Kuroo seemed to be too bothered by it, but Iwaizumi didn’t stop to wonder why that may be, even though it did strike him as odd. There were too many other things about the building that was weirder than why those two weren’t seemingly affected by the dark energy. 

The oddest thing was that there was absolutely no one in sight. 

“This is what we were suppose to scout?” Akaashi asked. “How on earth did Commander Washijo expect us to do that?”

“Maybe he didn’t,” Iwaizumi muttered. He admitted he’d been thinking about the same thing. While Washijo had never given them completely clear details on what this encampment was, and Akaashi hadn’t gotten anything from the IGSs in Rhymeer except a relative location, he felt the fact that the encampment not being a camp but instead a large building would’ve been a detail that shouldn’t have been left out.

Iwaizumi remembered what Kenma had told them, about him suspecting something going on with the higher ranking officers at the Academy. Could Commander Washijo have something to do with that?

_Focus Hajime,_ Suga said in Iwaizumi’s head. Iwaizumi shot him an annoyed glare while he smirked. 

Meanwhile, Akaashi, Kuroo, and Bokuto had started to go over the plan… again.

“Okay, Kuroo, here’s what I’ve got: assuming you can teleport us inside the building, we split up from there. You and Suga will connect all four of us telepathically so we can communicate. We’ll each search a different section for Oikawa and Yahaba.” 

“And we’ve gotta be stealthy,” Kuroo said. “We can’t risk getting caught ourselves.”

“Right,” Akaashi agreed. “Which is why Bokuto is here to create a distraction.”

“Sounds simple enough,” Suga commented.

“Which means it probably won’t be,” Iwaizumi muttered. 

Of course it won’t be, Iwaizumi.

Iwaizumi looked up suddenly, wondering where the voice had come from.

“Did you guys hear that?”

The other four shook their heads. Suga gave him a funny look. 

“You okay, Hajime?” he asked. 

“I…” Iwaizumi frowned, not knowing what to say. The voice had come out of nowhere—gone as suddenly as it had appeared. “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

“Okay, well I’m going to walk over here to see if I can locate a good spot to teleport us in,” Kuroo said, his voice hinting that he was starting to think Iwaizumi had gone   
insane. Maybe he had.

Kuroo walked off in one direction, and Suga wandered off in the other, probably to see if he could sense the minds of the people inside. 

With both Suga and Kuroo off playing with their powers, Akaashi was the only one left close to Iwaizumi, and even he wasn’t paying attention. He was too busy looking like he was trying to ignore Bokuto. 

Iwaizumi turned away from Akaashi and concentrated. He didn’t know who was talking in his head, but he could tell it wasn’t the same kind of communication to expect   
from a telepath—even a really powerful one like Suga or Kuroo. It was different… which meant whoever it was may not hear him if he tried sending thoughts back. 

_I don’t know who you are,_ Iwaizumi thought, pushing the thought towards the strange voice as much as he could. _But you need to get out of my head, now._

He stood still for a few minutes, fully aware of the other four shooting him the occasional glance every so often. Iwaizumi chose to ignore them. He stayed silent for a while, but soon it seemed like the mystery voice was gone.

Oh, I’m not gone Iwaizumi. The voice said right as he thought that, I’ll always be here. But you might as well consider your friends as gone. Because that’s what’s going to happen. You’ll fail them as their leader and then- They’ll be gone.

Iwaizumi shivered despite the heat. He didn’t understand what was going on, but he couldn’t do anything to stop the growing sense of dread building in his stomach.

Akaashi looked at him with concern, he was about to say something when Suga suddenly called out. 

“No! No, I’m sorry!”

“Koushi?” Iwaizumi asked, turning and looking at his friend. “Koushi what’s going on?”

But Suga didn’t seem to hear him. His eyes were glazed over and he didn’t turn to look at Iwaizumi when he spoke. Iwaizumi was about to call out to him again when   
Kuroo’s voice carried over to them.

“Let me out! I don’t like the dark, let me out!”

It was the middle of the day, with the sun blazing over their heads.

“Kuroo, what are you talking about?” Akaashi asked. 

“It’s dark. It’s so dark.” Kuroo’s voice was almost a sob, making him sound like a scared little child. 

Suga was about the same, falling his knees and covering his face with his hands. 

Akaashi gasped. “Iwaizumi, I know…”

He stopped short and his eyes got a faraway look in his eyes. 

“No,” he breathed. “No.”

“Akaashi what…?”

Iwaizumi looked in the direction he was. What he saw surprised him. Walking towards them, head held high, was a woman who looked scarily like Akaashi, only shorter, and with a bit darker eyes.

“Iwaizumi, Akaashi,” the woman said calmly, her voice even. “Glad to see you made it here safely.”

“Where are Oikawa and Yahaba?” Akaashi demanded. Iwaizumi looked at him and noticed the look of pure hatred he was sending at the woman. 

As Iwaizumi looked closer at the newcomer, he realized she did look familiar. He couldn’t figure out where he would’ve known her from, though. It wouldn’t have been the academy, she was too old for him to have been there at the same time as her. Besides, she didn’t look much like the Edil type. Especially if the way Akaashi was glaring at her was any sort of tell.

The woman waved her hand dismissively at Akaashi’s question. “Oh, they’re somewhere. You know those two. Always wandering off and getting in trouble.”

Akaashi didn’t seem to have any patience for the woman’s games because the next thing Iwaizumi knew he’d pulled out his gun and had it pointed straight at the stranger.

The woman didn’t even flinch, and kept walking towards them.

“Put that away, Keiji,” she scolded.

As if she knew what Iwaizumi was thinking, the woman flashed a small smile at him before looking back at Akaashi. “Now, Keiji, just sit tight. There’s some things that I want you and Iwaizumi to see…”

No sooner had she said that did she disappear. Not only that, but as Iwaizumi turned back to ask Akaashi if he’d just seen the same thing he had, Iwaizumi realized with a shock that Akaashi was gone too. And as he strained his ears to hear, he noticed even the scared voices of Suga and Kuroo had vanished.

“You failed.”

Iwaizumi turned around to see Oikawa standing there. 

“We counted on you and you failed,” Oikawa said. 

“Oikawa what?”

“You failed, Iwaizumi.”

This came from Yahaba, who appeared next to Oikawa. 

“We were your team and you failed us.”

“Look, I tried…” Iwaizumi said. “Guys, we were trying our hardest to help you. Kenma came up with a great plan…”

“Only because you couldn’t come up with your own plan,” Kenma’s voice came next. Iwaizumi spun to look at his brother. 

“Kenma…”

“You thought you could do it,” Oikawa said. “But you failed. This year…”

“... and last year,” Suga chimed in. 

Iwaizumi’s breathing hitched. He wrestled back the flashbacks of gunfire and his teammates fighting to move around him. He pushed away the sight of his supervisor   
struggling to hand him the orders for the mission before she died. 

“Don’t…” he whispered, his voice cracking.

“That’s what’s going to happen to us, isn’t it?” Oikawa asked. “Your team last year was nearly destroyed because of your failure. Now we’ll be destroyed because of the   
same reason.”

_Hajime! Hajime it’s not real!_

Iwaizumi shuddered at the sound of Suga’s voice in his head. He was saying it wasn’t real. But Suga was here… he was looking right at him. 

_That’s not me, Hajime. Wake up._

A hand touched his shoulder and he spun around to face Suga. The real, living Suga. 

“Hajime,” the new Suga said, reaching up to cup Iwaizumi’s face in his hand. “What you’re seeing isn’t real. _It’s not real._ ”

As he spoke, the images around Iwaizumi disappeared, leaving him just looking into Suga’s face. 

_”Suga,”_ he gasped. 

“You look like shit,” was what Suga said in response. 

Iwaizumi snorted and shook his head. 

“But really, are you okay?” Suga asked. 

Iwaizumi took a breath and shook his head again. 

“I… not really,” he said. 

They’d been attacked by a fear spinner, someone with the power to show a person what they fear most.

That was just what Iwaizumi had seen. His worst fears brought to life right before his eyes. Just like his team last year had been.

_Don’t think about that,_ Suga said. 

Iwaizumi didn’t think about the fact that Suga had been on that team last year, and that he had lost his right leg as a consequence of it. 

A retching sound came from behind Suga. Iwaizumi looked over his shoulder to see Akaashi hunched over on his knees, dry heaving. Kuroo and Bokuto were kneeling   
down next to him, Bokuto’s hand on his back.

“Akaashi, are you okay?” Kuroo asked quietly.

Akaashi looked up and nodded before bending back over to heave again. 

When he regained his composure, he shakily stood back, Bokuto’s hand still on his back for support. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Let’s go, please.”

“You’re not okay,” Iwaizumi said, stepping away from Suga. 

Akaashi looked up at him with a sigh. “We don’t have time for this, Iwaizumi.”

“No, no, wait,” Iwaizumi said. “There’s something you aren’t telling us. You recognized the woman we saw, didn’t you?”

“Woman?” Kuroo asked. 

“There was a woman that appeared to us before our own personal fear worlds,” Iwaizumi said. “And I’m pretty sure I knew her from somewhere, but I’m definitely sure   
Akaashi recognized her.”

“Akaashi…” Kuroo whispered quietly.

“Out of my head,” Akaashi growled. He looked up at Iwaizumi and his eyes flashed to a dark stormy gray. 

“Fine,” he muttered. “I do know her. She’s my sister.”

“Your sister? Kiyoko?”

Akaashi nodded. 

“But… how does she have a kakja power?”

“Because she’s a kakja.”

“But… how?”

“It’s really not that hard to believe,” Akaashi said. “Considering…”

“Considering what?”

Akaashi took a deep breath.

“Considering my dad was also a kakja.”

Iwaizumi couldn’t help the shocked look that came across his face. Akaashi’s dad… was a kakja? But that couldn’t be right at all. Everything Iwaizumi remembered about   
Akaashi’s father was him helping other people, taking care of Akaashi and Matsukawa. Sure he’d been kind of quiet and reserved, but a kakja? Iwaizumi didn’t believe that.

Suga was watching him intently, seeing how he would react. Bokuto looked like they would willing fight to defend Akaashi’s honor. Kuroo was shuffling uncomfortably, which Iwaizumi found very out of character for him, but he didn’t say anything. Akaashi was looking at him with a still unreadable expression, but he could see a faint hint of desperation in his eyes. He needed him to understand what he was saying.

“Your dad is a kakja?” Iwaizumi asked.

“Was,” Akaashi corrected. “He died a few years ago.”

“Was… sorry,” Iwaizumi said. “But that means…”

He smiled sadly. Iwaizumi noticed her eyes flashed again between the normal green-gray and dark stormy gray.

“That’s right,” Akaashi said. “I’m half-kakja.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! Comments, kudos, etc. greatly appreciated!


	6. Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Truths are revealed to Oikawa in unpleasant ways. Meanwhile Akaashi explains the truth to Iwaizumi.

_You can’t give up._

It was less than a whisper, a drifting, fleeting memory of something he was failing to hold on to. He felt like he was rising up out of the thickest, deepest fog ever imagined. The images came and went, bursting in a staccato against his eyes. Walking into the facility. Yahaba being ripped away from him. Screams that filled the halls as he fought to get back to his brother, curses from the kakja thrown out of his path. Darkness that fell as he felt something sharp prick his neck from behind. Anger as he was woken only to be shoved in a room with three of the kakja fighters. Darkness spilling from Nakamura and engulfing him. Shock at seeing his brother’s face, bloodied and bruised. 

_Give ‘em hell._

The words floated, suspended, across his mind. Had he said that? 

He was coming back, the images flashed faster, his mind was sharpening with the passing of each one. He saw Yahaba’s face, dark eyes whose emotions seared into his, screaming at him while his lips stayed motionless. Something was burning. The images stopped. The burning sensation intensified. His eyelids no longer displayed the show of light and rapid fire pictures. They were slowly growing brighter, pain searing into them with the increasing light. The burning was bordering on unbearable. 

_What was going on?_

The light was terrible, the burning too intense to ignore. He had to open his eyes. He tried, but they wouldn’t move. 

The burning was spreading. With a startling realization he was made aware of his body. The pain expanded beyond the confines of his mind. The burning was _him_. He was burning. Panic grew in his chest, He had to open his eyes. Something was wrong. Something was happening to his body. 

A single image of a face flashed across his still closed eyes. Then the memory of a name to go with it. 

_Nakamura._

His eyes wrenched open with such force that his whole head jerked. His chest was heaving, he couldn’t breathe. Then he felt it against his bare skin. The burning was everywhere. He wanted to scream, but all sound lodged in his throat along with his breath. He jammed my eyes shut again as his back arched, the pain taking priority, shoving everything else to the edges of his mind. It was rampaging, igniting every nerve ending. He clamped down on his lip, and tasted blood as the skin broke. He had to get away from the burning, but he couldn’t move. He thrashed, trying to jerk his arms away, lift his legs up, or roll on his side. Anything. Anything to get away from the burning.

Something hot was pouring down his cheeks. Tears. He felt it, smelled it, and heard it. The _crack popping_ sound of his skin against whatever was doing this to him. The smell of burning flesh was all that would process besides the pain. The burning continued for an eternity.

_I must be in hell._

Then, just as he was about to scream out against the pain, it stopped. His body collapsed and his eyes remained closed. He felt himself retreating back into his mind, into the bliss of unawareness. 

Words garbled as they made their way to his ears.

“Tell us how to get to Antse.”

A choking sound, then, 

“Never.”

Footsteps walked in a circle around him. He was limp, fading, and unable to summon the energy to move even a finger. 

_It’s Nakamura. He did this._

Oikawa forced himself to hang on, grabbing at the edges of his consciousness, keeping himself from slipping into the painless black. He cracked one eye open, roving, seeking Nakamura’s face. Their eyes met and Nakamura stared back into his with a hatred that burned into the core of him. His other eye opened and he let all of his pain and hatred pour into them, his eyes mirroring back into his. 

“Fine.” Nakamura’s lips were tight as he said the word, eyes now on Yahaba, who Oikawa could see out of the corner of his eye. 

Nakamura’s fist crashed down as a growl escaped his lips. It filled vision as it impacted with the right side of his face. Oikawa’s head snapped to the side, his left cheek bouncing it back up off the table. He felt the reverberations rock his skull, pounding out a rhythm that made it almost impossible to even think.

“Tell me,” the words now tight and short, angry. 

“I don’t know.” Tired, weak, and on the verge of collapse.

_He can’t break._

He was close, Oikawa could hear it in his voice. 

Oikawa knew what they were doing. They were using him to get to Yahaba. They knew he wouldn’t break if they only tortured him, but they had his brother, so that changed everything. They would torture him until Yahaba talked, and then most likely kill both of them.

_Do something, Tooru._

He had too. He had to do something. He wouldn’t let Yahaba give up, especially not because of him. The thought of even trying to talk made him want to vomit. Not that there was anything left to come up. He heard a door open and close. He had to do something. He had to move, to at least look at him. With an effort, Oikawa rolled his head over, almost blacking out as the pounding in his head increased and the pain from the burns screamed for attention. 

Finally, his head was turned towards Yahaba. His right eye was swelling shut, blocking his vision, but as his good eye met Yahaba’s, he saw everything he needed to see. 

Pain. Anger. A hurt that was eating him alive. All those negative emotions and more flowed out of his gaze. But amongst that, Oikawa saw the one thing he was looking for: strength. He wasn’t giving up, he was still fighting.

_Atta boy, you’re still giving them hell._

Oikawa tried to smile at him, to reassure him that they were going to keep fighting until they got themselves out of the crazy hellhole. He was pretty sure his smile came out as a grimace, seeing as how he couldn’t really feel part of his face, but Yahaba understood, Oikawa saw it in his eyes. He sent his own smile/grimace back, and Oikawa wanted to laugh.

He heard his door slam open as two sets of footsteps entered. The head turn and smile/grimace had spent him. Oikawa couldn’t muster the energy needed to turn and see who it was that’d come in. Fortunately (or unfortunately), they walked around to stand in front of his table, cutting off his view to his brother. He was drifting away, no longer able maintain being conscious. Blackness encroached around the edges of his eye, giving him tunnel vision. The only thing he saw before faded out was a black haired woman, and then the accompanying thought,

_Do I know her?_

...

Flashes of light and bursts of images danced their way across the black landscape of his eyelids. Or at least he hoped it was his eyelids, he couldn’t tell anymore. Didn’t   
care. Maybe he was blind. Maybe they’d taken away his sight as part of the torture. 

Oikawa woke up to find himself strapped in a chair. He was in a different room than he had been earlier - not that he had really processed much about the previous room. The main difference he noticed about this one was that Yahaba was right beside him, struggling against his own restraints. 

Noticing he was awake, Yahaba turned towards Oikawa. 

“Tooru, you’re awake,” he said, relief evident in his voice. 

Oikawa tried to speak in response, only to release a sound that sounded similar to a dying cat.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to talk,” Yahaba reassured him. 

But Oikawa wasn’t going to accept that. 

“S… Sorry,” he choked out.

“Sorry? For what?” Yahaba asked. “You got worse than I did.”

While some part of Oikawa’s mind registered that was true, all he could really focus on were the deep cuts visible on Yahaba’s bare torso. 

“‘s my fault,” Oikawa said. 

“Tooru…”

Words were an effort, but Oikawa needed to say this to his brother. Needed to make sure Yahaba understood just how sorry he was. 

“My fault we’re here. Should’ve listened to you.”

“Tooru it’s not your fault,” Yahaba insisted. “It’s not…”

He was cut off by the sound of a door opening. They both looked up to see Nakamura walk in, followed by a short, black haired woman. Her dark gray cat-like eyes gleamed when she saw them.

“Oikawa Tooru and Yahaba Shigeru,” she said. “I’ve been expecting you.”

Well that didn’t sound good. Oikawa didn’t want to know what she was expecting them _for_.

He also couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew this woman from somewhere, some memory long past that he couldn’t latch onto. 

The woman turned towards Nakamura. “Leave us,” she said in a tone that left no questions. “Guard the door.”

Nakamura nodded and left without a word. Then the woman turned towards Yahaba and Oikawa. 

“What do you want with us?” Yahaba asked, filling the space Oikawa himself would normally choose to fill. But Oikawa still was struggling to find the words to say. So he had no choice but to let Yahaba speak instead.

“I would have thought you would know that by now, Yahaba. We want you to tell us the secret of how to get into Antse.”

Yahaba had the audacity to scoff. “You wish, bitch.”

The woman clicked her tongue. “Cooperation would be in your best interest here, Yahaba. But if you refuse to cooperate, you’ll leave me no other choice.”

As she spoke she approached Oikawa’s chair. He resisted the urge to shrink back away from her. 

_You’re stronger than this, Tooru,_ he told himself. _Get it together._

“Leave him alone,” Yahaba demanded, noticing the woman’s attention towards Oikawa. 

“Then tell me how to get to Antse,” she said calmly. 

“Never.”

“Very well.”

She walked over and knelt in front of Oikawa. A sinking feeling ran through his stomach, the phrase ‘last resort option’ echoed through his head, despite no one having   
used it. Oikawa didn’t focus on that. Whatever she did, he had faith in his brother. Even if she was the most last ditch effort ever, she still wasn’t going to get him to talk. They obviously didn’t want the two of them dead, so what else could they do to them?

Then she reached up and tried to put her hands on either side of his face. Oikawa jerked his head as far as he could away from her grasp, his mind racing through possibilities in a matter of a second. She was using her hands, and had no obvious weapons, that meant that her power was mental. Immediately he slammed up walls around his mind. They were steel, strong, and had been battle honed through practice with other telepaths at the academy. Mental powers against mental powers were dangerous, and he’d long learned how to protect his mind from unwanted mental invasions. He would not let her penetrate his mind willingly. 

She had a hand on either side of his face, index fingers resting on his temples. Oikawa focused on his walls, squeezing his eyes shut as he felt her mind slam into his, but not enter it. She couldn’t get in-

A scream ripped from deep inside him, primal and desperate. His brain was melting. Being liquidized as a rod of searing, agonizing heat forced its way through. This wasn’t right. She wasn’t supposed to be able to get in. But she was. He could feel - through the heat melting his mental walls down - the ice of her mental abilities sliding through the holes in his defenses. Anything would be better than this. Even his body burning on that table felt peaceful compared to this. Then, as soon as it was there it was gone, and everything was black. 

Then came an overwhelming unbearable tide of emotions. Emotions that he’d tried his hardest to bury and forget about. Emotions that he clung too and kept so close to his heart that no one else had ever seen them.

_Weak._

_So weak._

_Never be strong enough._

“You’re weak, Tooru.”

Oikawa opened his eyes to find himself in a blank space, staring right at Yahaba. 

“Weak,” the other male spat.

“Shigeru, what?”

“You weren’t strong enough to save Mom and Dad. You weren’t strong enough to save Aunt Mari. And you were too weak to keep us from being captured.”

“And you know what?” Yahaba continued, not letting Oikawa speak. “You aren’t going to be strong enough to save us either. We’re going to die in here, Tooru, because   
you’re _weak_.”

And just like that, Yahaba vanished. 

“He’s right you know,” a new voice said. Oikawa turned in the space to find himself looking at his cousin Bokuto. Bokuto looked up at him and Oikawa met their bright golden eyes. 

“Shigeru’s right,” Bokuto continued. “You are weak. It’s no wonder I was always able to be better than you in training.”

“I always pitied you, Tooru,” they said. “Because you had all the delusions of being the strongest. But would the strongest really have lost their parents at such a young age? Would the strongest have really lost their aunt only a few years after that - not able to protect either?”

“You’re weak,” Bokuto said quietly, shaking their head. 

Then they too vanished.

“So this is your secret then?” Akaashi’s voice came next. Oikawa didn’t want to turn and face him.

“And I thought my secret was bad,” Akaashi said. “But yours is guaranteed to get us all killed. Because you wouldn’t be strong enough to stop it. We’re all relying on you but you’re too weak to follow through.”

Then he vanished too, leaving Oikawa alone. 

Only he wasn’t alone. As if looking in a mirror, Oikawa looked up to see himself standing there. He looked ragged and frayed, his face a mess from being beaten and burn marks lined his wrists, ankles and waist. Oikawa knew that was how he must look now.

“You know the truth, Tooru,” the other him said. “You know that they’re all right.”

“But I’m not weak,” he argued. 

“But you are,” the other him countered. “You _know_ you are. Like Shigeru said, you were too weak to save your parents, or Mari, or to keep the two of you from getting captured.”

“Your weak, Tooru.”

“I’m not!” Oikawa shouted. “I’m not!”

“Yes you are,” his parents’ voices said. 

“Yes you are,” came the voice of his aunt Mari.

“Yes you are,” said the voices of Yahaba, Akaashi, and Bokuto. 

The voices echoed in his head, pushing him to his knees and forcing him to cover his ears in attempt to block out the noise. Except that didn’t work because the voices were in his mind. It was all in his… mind.

Oikawa looked up and blinked.

Iwaizumi was standing there, hand outreached. 

“You’re strong, you know,” he said. “Strongest person I’ve ever met.”

A memory. This was a memory. But Oikawa didn’t recognize where it was from - when it had happened.

“You can do this, Tooru,” Iwaizumi said. “I know you can.”

“But, everyone believes I’m weak,” Oikawa argued. 

“Then prove to them you aren’t.”

_Prove it._

With a gasp, Oikawa came back to himself. He was back in the room with the woman and Yahaba. Yahaba was screaming at the woman, tears running down his face telling   
her to stop. Just stop it. Leave him alone. 

The woman didn’t seem to realize Oikawa was back in his own mind, and not in whatever fear space she had put him in.  
Iwaizumi’s words echoed in his head. _Prove it._

Oikawa dove into himself, searching out his power. He knew that the kakja had used power sedation on them, but maybe… there. A spark of his power was all he needed. 

Focusing on that spark, Oikawa willed it into a billowing flame. With a rush, his power exploded outwards. 

The woman in front of him was thrown into a wall across the room and knocked unconscious. The door was thrown open and hopefully took Nakamura out with it. His and Yahaba’s restraints snapped open. 

Without a second’s thought, Oikawa jumped to his feet. He wasn’t prepared for the drain on his powers and energy, and would’ve fallen if Yahaba hadn’t caught him.

“Tooru!” 

“Out,” was all Oikawa could muster to say, but Yahaba understood. Supporting most of Oikawa’s weight, he made their way out into the hallway, looking up and down it as if trying to decide which was was the exit. 

The sounds of shouting to the left forced their hands and made them turn right. They hurried down the hall as fast as their injuries and Oikawa’s lack of energy would let them, but it wasn’t fast enough. 

As the voices grew louder, Oikawa made the split decision to shove them through a doorway, which turned out to be a mistake. The doorway had led them to a dark room with a metal table and no exit in sight. 

“Shit,” he muttered.

“Tooru, it’s okay,” Yahaba said. “We’ll make it.”

“No, no we won’t Shigeru. I’m the only one with powers right now, and even those are spent. There’s no telling how many kakja are coming after us and…”

“You aren’t alone, Tooru,” Yahaba said. He held out his free hand and summoned a small flame. “And you aren’t the only one who got his powers back.”

Oikawa looked at his brother and grinned. 

“At least now it’ll be a fair fight,” he said.

“Maybe not for them,” Yahaba added. 

Suddenly Oikawa noticed the air in the room darkening. The dark energy that he had been sensing since his powers had returned tripled. 

Realizing what was happening, Oikawa pushed Yahaba to the ground. 

“Crawl,” he said. “And hold your breath.”

The air was thickening with a cloud of dark energy. It reminded Oikawa of Nakamura’s powers, and he gathered that was where it came from. 

But they were so close to escape, Oikawa wasn’t going to let his freedom go that easily. He and Yahaba pushed towards the door, each biting back curses at their injuries. 

_Just a little further,_ Oikawa thought.

His thoughts were growing fuzzy when he noticed the door open. By that point, the entire room was filled with a dark cloud. A hand reached through the darkness and grabbed Oikawa’s wrist.

Nakamura.

“Tooru no!” 

The last thing Oikawa saw before he fell back into unconsciousness was Yahaba’s alarmed face as one of the kakja hit him from behind. 

Close. 

They had been so close. 

…

Akaashi watched Iwaizumi carefully as he gave him a few seconds to let his words sink in. Honestly, he was giving himself as much time to get composed as he was giving Iwaizumi. Akaashi had only told a few people the secret of who he was, and only one of them had not already guessed it because of their powers. But none of those people had known him when he was younger, or had known his whole family. 

He should’ve realized that he was going to have to tell Iwaizumi, Oikawa, and Yahaba eventually, but he didn’t expect having to reveal the truth to Iwaizumi in the middle a rescue mission to save the other two. Honestly, the situation was less than ideal, but now that he’d finally told Iwaizumi, He couldn’t help but feel a huge pressure being lifted off of his chest. It was as if the secret had been smothering him, but now that it was out he could breath a whole lot easier.

Iwaizumi, however, seemed to be currently struggling on the whole “breathing” concept. He was staring at Akaashi with a shocked and confused expression. Even after standing in silence for what felt like hours— but really was only a couple of minutes at most— he still hadn’t said anything. 

_You could’ve given him the news a little more gently,_ Suga said in Akaashi’ mind. 

Oh, right. Suga, Kuroo, and Bokuto were still there. 

_Hey guys, uh, would you mind giving us some space? I feel like I need to explain this to Iwaizumi one-on-one._

_Sure thing,_ Suga answered.

_You need help, just shout,_ Kuroo added with a smirk as he led Bokuto away, much to the protest of the other. _We’ll be right over here._  
Akaashi watched them walk off before he turned back to Iwaizumi. He’d watched them walk away too, but now was looking back at Akaashi.

Akaashi took a breath.

“Look, Iwaizumi, I know that isn’t something you hear everyday…”

He held his hand up. 

“Honestly Akaashi, while I never expected anything like that, it’s okay.”

Akaashi frowned. “Really?”

“Well, yeah,” Iwaizumi said, nodding. “You can’t help your parentage, and I know you. You always try to do the right thing. So just because you come from bad blood, doesn’t mean you have it yourself.”

“Huh, well thanks, Iwaizumi.” Akaashi paused before adding. “You know, my dad wasn’t a bad guy. Sure, he was a kakja, but he never acted like one.”

“Yeah, I was kind of confused by that,” Iwaizumi agreed. “I mean, from what I remember of your dad, he was always pretty nice. Not at all like a kakja normally would be.”

Akaashi nodded slowly. It was true that his dad never acted like a kakja. He remembered most of his childhood pretty clearly, and there was not one single time he could remember his dad ever giving any kind of sign he wasn’t kaswe. If anything, his dad was the nicer of his two parents.

“So, uh, have you always known about this?” Iwaizumi asked, bringing Akaashi’s thoughts back to the present. 

He shook his head. “No, honestly I didn’t find out until I was twelve, about to turn thirteen. Issei had just turned fifteen and he was leaving for the academy in a few weeks and I didn’t want him to go. So he and I were camping down by the river, which wasn’t too far away from our house, but far enough away from Mom’s ever-watchful eyes and dream-walker powers. I was just starting to figure out what my powers were, and we were sure that we didn’t want Mom to know just yet.”

“Anyway, while we were down by the river, Kiyoko visited. We hadn’t seen her since the night the village was attacked, so it surprised us both.” Akaashi sighed before continuing. “She told us the truth about Dad and about ourselves. Tried to get us to join her and the other kakja, but Issei wouldn’t have any of that. Kiyoko left without much of a fight, but she kept coming back to tried and convince me to join her up until the point I left for the academy.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Iwaizumi looked like he was struggling to form a question. Akaashi stood and waited patiently, though he could feel their timeframe for saving Oikawa and Yahaba looming over him like a giant clock. Each second that ticked by seemed to vibrate through his core.

“So what’s it like?” Iwaizumi asked. “Being… uh.”

“Being a pure-pala?” Akaashi supplied. “That’s the official term for being half-kaswe, half-kakja.”

“Yeah, that,” he said. “What is it like?”

Akaashi couldn’t help but allow a small chuckle to escape from his lips at his question. It was just the fact that he was so awkward about it.

“It’s really not that different,” he answered. “I mean… it wasn’t until I actually found out the truth. As I’ve gotten older since then…” Akaashi took a breath as he tried to decide if he really wanted to tell Iwaizumi this. Then again, it was too late now. “Since I figured out who I was, I’ve had to be careful. One wrong move and…”

“And you could turn,” Iwaizumi finished. He looked at him with a solemn sort of expression that he couldn’t quite read, but he could easily see the pity for him that was placed in his eyes. “Akaashi I… I’m sorry.”

Akaashi shook his head. “It’s not your fault Iwaizumi, and honestly I’m fine. I’ve learned to control it. As long as I keep my focus and my heart on the ways of the kaswe, I’ll be okay.”

“I guess you didn’t put this little detail on your application for the academy, huh?” Iwaizumi asked with a slight smile.

Akaashi snorted. “Yeah, like that would’ve gotten me in. Most wanted applicant right there.” He sighed, letting his shoulders slump. “No, neither me or Issei said anything about that on our applications. Of course, Issei had already been accepted by the time we found out, but still… it wasn’t something we could exactly broadcast openly. We didn’t even tell Mom that we knew.”

“Why not?”

“We didn’t want to hurt her any more than she already was,” Akaashi said. “When Dad left, it hurt Mom pretty bad. Issei and I didn’t want to remind her about him any more that we had to.”

“But your mom knew that your dad was a kakja?” Iwaizumi asked. 

Akaashi nodded slowly. “I saw it in her memories once…” he said.

Iwaizumi looked surprised, and Akaashi tugged at his fingers. 

“But that doesn’t matter,” he said. The ticking of the giant clock grew louder. Akaashi knew Iwaizumi still had questions—he could see them brewing on his face—but the giant clock looming over my head was suffocating. They needed to get moving, before it was too late. “Look, Iwaizumi, I’ll answer any other questions you have later, but we really need to get going. Or else it’ll be too late for Oikawa and Yahaba.”

“Right, right!” he exclaimed and shook his head to clear it. “We’ve wasted enough time. Come on.”

“About time!” Suga called from where he, Kuroo, and Bokuto were walking towards them. 

“While you two were chatting about unfortunate family ties, I managed to find where to teleport us in,” Kuroo said with a smirk. He gave Akaashi a look when he mentioned   
the unfortunate family ties. He knew Akaashi had his suspicions about him—which was something not even Suga could claim- and if Akaashi’s suspicions were right, then Kuroo could potentially end up being even more of a threat to this mission than he was. But he couldn’t say anything yet, because as much as he didn’t want to, he had to trust Kuroo right now. They wouldn’t be able to help Oikawa and Yahaba without him on their side. He just hoped he was making the right decision. 

“Great,” Iwaizumi said. “Get ready to go then. Once we get in, we need to be ready for anything, so Suga and Akaashi, any weapons you plan on using get them ready.”

Suga set to checking his guns. Unlike Akaashi, he only carried one handgun, while Akaashi preferred two. Suga instead used a shotgun that he currently had slung over his shoulder. He also had a belt full of things like flash and smoke bombs. Akaashi offhandedly wondered how he’d gotten those, considering those were almost always reserved for Weapons Combat Specialists. 

Akaashi checked to make sure both of his handguns were fully loaded and holstered securely on his hips, along with the extra clips he had stashed on his belt. He adjusted the knives strapped to his forearms so that his sleeves better hid them. If needed, he could easily slip them out into his hand. While guns were definitely the most effective things to fight with, he’d learned that there were times where you couldn’t rely on guns.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced up to see Iwaizumi. He had a serious expression on his face. 

“Akaashi, I have to know… are you going be able to do this?” he asked quietly.

“What do you mean?” Akaashi asked.

“We’re going up against your sister,” Iwaizumi answered. “I saw what happened to you when she showed herself to us. I just need to make sure you aren’t going to freeze up on us when we need you.”

Akaashi slammed a new bullet clip into one of his guns and gave him a look.

“Don’t worry about me,” he said confidently, even though he had to admit he’d been thinking the same thing. After seeing his worst fears up close and personal thanks to Kiyoko’s attack had just reinstated the risk he was putting upon himself and more importantly, everyone else that was on his team. But he couldn’t let his fears stop him from helping Oikawa and Yahaba. Especially not when they were at the mercy of his sister. 

Akaashi holstered the gun he was holding and looked around at the other four, meeting Iwaizumi’s eyes last.

“Let’s go,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments, Kudos, etc greatly appreciated!


	7. Rescues

It took no time at all for Kuroo to open a portal for them into the kakja building. Iwaizumi led the way through it, followed by Akaashi, Kuroo, and Suga. They left Bokuto behind, letting them create a distraction. 

The portal put them in a supply closet inside the building. There was really no room for the four of them, and it was a struggle for them to move into a better position while also staying quiet. Even though Bokuto should be drawing the kakja attention outside of the facility, they didn’t want to risk being caught. 

Iwaizumi felt the mental link between him and the other four click into place. Suga was the first to speak.

_I don’t sense anyone nearby,_ he said. He was positioned next to Akaashi at the doorway. Both had knives pulled, ready to charge forward. Kuroo stood behind them, clenching and unclenching his fists. 

_Are we ready?_ Iwaizumi asked. 

Nods of assent went around the group.

_Good,_ Iwaizumi said. _We go on my mark. Akaashi and Kuroo, go left, Suga and I will go right._

They all sent their confirmations, and Iwaizumi took a breath. He was trying hard not to think about the last mission he had been on, where he’d also been put in this sort of position. 

_It’ll be okay, we’re going to save them,_ Suga said in his mind. _It’s not going to be like last time._

Iwaizumi nodded. He knew that. He had to believe that.

So to the others, he said. 

_Ready, go_.

…

Akaashi rounded a corner to find himself face-to-face with kakja patrol that had apparently not been pulled out for Bokuto’s distraction.

It only took a second for the patrol to notice him. 

_Fuck_ Akaashi thought.

He readied his knives, taking count that there were three members in the patrol. Good. He could take that many. If they didn’t call for backup. 

One reached to tap his earpiece, but Akaashi held up a knife and pointed it at him.

“I wouldn’t do that,” he said in a calm voice. “You see, I’m here for just one reason, and none of you are worth the space or effort for me fight you. Honestly, it would take me maybe two minutes tops to make sure none of you are able to call for help ever again. So if I were you, I’d keep the fact that you saw me a secret… just between the four of us, okay? And then you’re going to let me go on my way. Got it?”

Well the good news was that the guard dropped his hand from his earpiece. But the bad news was that they took that opportunity to charge him. 

“Well, I did warn you,” Akaashi said. Then he attacked.

Akaashi would never admit it, but he always reveled in his ability to fight. To be able to slash his way through opponents and cut them down where they stood. He knew that it was his kakja side that enjoyed it the most. That it was that side of him that begged for him to spill blood. 

It was also because of that side that Akaashi couldn’t bring himself to kill the guards, but instead he only incapacitated them. He knew it was a risk to leave them alive, but if he gave into that cry for blood - there was no coming back from that. 

Soon enough, all three guards were on the ground and Akaashi pushed on past them. He turned down another hall, this one dimly lit. Thick metal doors lined the hallway. The doors were reinforced twice over, making them almost impenetrably strong. 

As Akaashi studied the lock of one of the closest doors, he noticed that they only locked from the outside.

Prison cells. 

Oikawa or Yahaba could be in one of those cells. Akaashi stepped back to take a different look at the lock. He could probably shoot it open, but that would alert people to where he was. 

Guess he had to try to pick the lock. But first to figure out where they were, if they were even there. 

Akaashi took a breath and reached out with his powers. He should be able to sense the traces of Oikawa or Yahaba’s memories if they were close by, but he needed to concentrate.

_There_. The faintest trace of Yahaba, coming from the end of the hall. Akaashi hurried to the door where the pulsing of Yahaba’s memories felt strongest. 

The door was different than the others. It was made of a solid block of rubberized material. Akaashi assumed that it was probably fireproof.

“Okay,” he muttered to himself. “Let’s try to get in there.”

He crouched down next to the door and pulled out his lock pick set. 

It took a few minutes, and Akaashi swore under his breath the whole time. He knew his time was running short. Bokuto’s distraction wouldn’t last forever. 

Eventually, though, the lock clicked open. Akaashi breathed a sigh of relief and pushed the door open.

There was Yahaba, laying on the ground with his eyes closed. His face looked like someone had used it as a punching bag, and his chest and torso were covered in deep cuts. Akaashi could see from the memories floating through the air what had happened to him, but he pushed the memories away. He didn’t need to know the details.   
Kneeling over, Akaashi gently shook Yahaba’s shoulder.

“Yahaba, Yahaba wake up.”

His eyes flew open and he stared at Akaashi with a blank expression.

“Aka… Akaashi?” he said in a quiet, broken voice. “No. You can’t be real. You’re not really there.”

“I’m real, Yahaba,” Akaashi said. “I came to break you out of here.”

“No, you’re not real.”

_Shit_ Akaashi thought. Kiyoko must have used her powers on him. He couldn’t be sure what Yahaba’s fears were, but he knew the signs of someone having been attacked by a fear-spinner.

Akaashi tried to think of something to say to comfort Yahaba, but right as he was about to, the lights in the room completely shut off and were replaced with blinking red strobes and a blaring alarm. 

The intruder alarm.

_Double shit_.

…

Iwaizumi had chosen a route through the air ducts while Suga, Kuroo, and Akaashi worked the hallways. Being able to transform himself into any kind of animal - say, a rat, for example - was a pretty handy trick.

He didn’t know how long he’d been running around through the ducts—a few minutes probably—when he finally caught on to a familiar smell coming in through the vents. It was faint, and he barely recognized it, but as he focused more in on the scent, he realized what it was. Sunshine and saltwater. A fresh ocean breeze. 

_Oikawa._

He was there. He was down in the room below Iwaizumi.

Without really thinking, Iwaizumi shifted out of his rat form and back into himself. He had the intention of pulling the air vent covering up from below him, but that wasn’t what happened. 

All of a sudden with a resounding crash, he fell into the room where Oikawa was being held. He managed to twist in mid-air and land on his feet, trying to cover for the collapsing vent blunder. He snapped his head up, scanning the room for threats before making his way quickly over to an unconscious Oikawa. Iwaizumi sucked in a breath through his teeth. He was barely recognizable. His body was littered with cuts and bruises; the right side of his face was swollen, colored black and blue. That wasn’t what made my stomach turn though. It was the burns. There were two across his stomach, and one on each ankle and wrist, each several inches wide. The ones on his wrists and ankles were the worst. They were an angry red, shiny and oozing, black and charred on the edges. He was only wearing white linen pants, feet bare and hair a mess, looking for all the world like he was dead. 

_Oh Oikawa, what’ve they done to you?_

_What, you found Oikawa?_ Suga’s voice sounded in his head.

_Yeah, but it’s bad, Suga._

Suga responded.

Part of Iwaizumi wanted to tell him no, but the other, larger part of him was thankful his friend would be coming to help.

His focus returned the faint sound of Oikawa’s breathing. Barely detectable to normal ears, but Iwaizumi’s shifting abilities also help enhance all of his other senses so he could hear it just fine. The only sign Oikawa was actually alive. He lifted a hand to shake his shoulder and then stopped. There wasn’t a spot on his skin that wasn’t injured, and he didn’t want to touch him and make it worse. So instead, he leaned close to his ear.

“Oikawa, you need to wake up!” Nothing, just the slight rise and fall of her chest. Iwaizumi leaned closer, his lips practically touching Oikawa’s ear, and shouted, “Oikawa! Wake! Up!” 

Oikawa’s head jerked and one of his hands flew up and hit Iwaizumi under the chin. His head jerked backwards but he kept his footing. Oikawa’s eyes were still closed but his arms were jerking around. Iwaizumi lunged forward and grabbed his forearms and pinned them down to the table, trying to be as gentle as he could without letting his arms loose. 

“Open your eyes! Please Tooru! Look at me!” Iwaizumi pushed down harder on his arms, fighting against him was he tried to get up.

Oikawa’s eyes snapped open and a loud groan escaped his lips. Iwaizumi looked down and saw that his hand was squeezing tightly right on top of the burn on his left wrist. 

“Oh hell,” Iwaizumi jerked his hand back. “I’m so sorry Oikawa, are you...”

“Shigeru,“ he croaked. “Shigeru.”

Iwaizumi reached his hand out to him again, this time carefully touching his hand. 

“It’s Iwaizumi, Oikawa. I’m here to get you out.” Oikawa’s eyes tried and failed to focus on his, looking foggy and lost. 

“Oikawa, listen to me, I’m going to get you out of here, but it’s going to hurt a little.”

“Iwaizumi, why…” he gasped as Iwaizumi scooped him up from the table he was lying on. His body convulsed in Iwaizumi’s arms. 

“Stop…” he gasped again. “Please just…” He shoved his way out of Iwaizumi’s arms and landed on the floor in a heap, breathing raggedly, but looking more coherent. 

Iwaizumi dropped to his knees beside him, but didn’t try to touch him again. 

“We have…” Oikawa sucked in a breath and winced. “Shigeru is here… somewhere, we have to find him.” He swayed to the side and his eyes slid shut, then jerked back open as he righted himself. His eyes were clear, now burning into Iwaizumi’s. He started to speak again but Iwaizumi stopped him.

“Akaashi is already out there finding Yahaba. He’s going to get him out, like I’m trying to do for you right now,” Iwaizumi said, explaining slowly and trying to keep the desperation out of his voice. They were running out of time.

Oikawa shook his head and tried to stand, which ended with him almost face planting and Iwaizumi catching him to keep from messing up his face anymore than it already was. 

“I have to find him!” Hysteria had edged into his voice. “He’s all alone, I have to find him Iwaizumi!”

“Oikawa!” Iwaizumi yelled forcefully, making him stop. “Listen. _Akaashi is finding Yahaba._ You and I are leaving here right now.”

Iwaizumi put his hands under Oikawa’s arms and hoisted him up, setting him on the table, his head lurching forwards to rest against Iwaizumi’s shoulder. Iwaizumi thought he’d passed out again, but then he pulled back and stared accusingly into his eyes. 

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Oikawa said. “How do I even know you’re the real Iwaizumi? You could just been another one of the kakja, trying to screw with my head again. Or maybe that fear-spinner is just showing me one of her fear whatever-things.”

“Oikawa I promise, I’m not...”

“Prove it,” he challenged. “Tell me something that only the real Iwaizumi would know. And not something the fear-spinner would be able to figure out from my fears.”

Iwaizumi tried not to think about Akaashi’s sister using her powers against Oikawa and Yahaba, or the fact that Oikawa had seen him in his fear-spinner visions. He wracked his brain for something that would appease Oikawa and get them out of there as quickly as possible. 

“Do you remember, at yours tenth birthday party,” Iwaizumi felt mischief gleaming in his eyes and the memory came up in full force. “You told me that the party was boring and you also didn’t want to have to clean up afterwards, so we snuck off to the tree house and played truth or dare, and you…” 

Iwaizumi’s grin expanded as he recalled all the details of that day. “You dared me to kiss you. You didn’t think that I’d do it. You just sat there all smug thinking that you’d won, but then, Oikawa Tooru…” Iwaizumi leaned close to his face, inches separating them, “I kissed you. Right on the lips.” 

“And right after that, Iwaizumi Hajime,” Oikawa quipped back, a faint grin growing on his face, “I believe I slapped you across the face.” He smirked up at Iwaizumi and continued, “Which I don’t think I’ll do right now, because I’d probably hurt myself more than I’d hurt you.”

“So you believe it’s me now?”

Oikawa nodded and Iwaizumi couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. 

He moved to pick Oikawa back up, but he held up a tired hand, “Let me walk, please.”

“No,” Iwaizumi said firmly. “You tried to walk a minute ago and about kissed the floor. I know you hate it but if you walk you’re only going to slow us down.”

His face pinched together and his lips pressed into a thin line, “I’m perfectly...”

“Fine? Were you going to say fine?” A voice said and Oikawa and Iwaizumi both jumped. Iwaizumi whirled around, his back to Oikawa, searching the room for the intruder.

Somewhere during the time of Iwaizumi proving he was really who he said he was, Suga had picked the lock and come into the room. He was standing leaning against the door with a smug look on his face.

“Suga!” Oikawa exclaimed, realizing who had walked in the room. 

“Hey Tooru,” Suga said.

“Suga, tell Iwa-chan to let me walk,” Oikawa pouted. 

“Iwa-chan?” Iwaizumi exclaimed, wondering where the hell that nickname had come from. Oikawa hadn’t called him that since they were little kids.

“I wish I could tell him that, Tooru,” Suga said. “But Hajime is right. We have to get out of here, and you’re very much not fine, despite what you were going to say. Let him carry you.”

Oikawa pouted again, but nodded. Iwaizumi reached out to pick him up. 

“If there was any other way, you know I would take it,” Iwaizumi told Oikawa softly. Oikawa didn’t respond, and only winced slightly as Iwaizumi picked him up, one arm behind his back and one behind his knees, trying to be as gentle as possible.

Oikawa let out a tight breath, and a quiet whimper with it. Iwaizumi felt like a terrible person. Oikawa had the highest pain tolerance he’d ever seen anyone display, so seeing him in this state bothered him a lot more that he let on. Iwaizumi turned towards the door and Oikawa sagged in his arms, head rolling to rest against his shoulder. He could feel his quick choppy breath on his neck. He was burning up - Iwaizumi could feel the heat radiating off his skin through his shirt. Suga opened the door and Iwaizumi saw Akaashi standing there with a gun in one hand, and Yahaba’s arm slung across his shoulders. 

Akaashi nodded silently in acknowledgement before leading the way down the hall, leaving Iwaizumi and Suga to follow.

“Where is everyone?” Iwaizumi panted slightly as they paused at the corner. Oikawa wasn’t as light as one would think. 

“Kuroo and Bokuto must have done something to help draw their attention away from us.” Akaashi said as they took off again. He pulled Yahaba’s arm slightly and pulled him closer against his side as his steps started to drag. “Kuroo told me that we had two minutes tops before we have company.” He looked behind them, then back ahead. “And that was forty five seconds ago.”

“Then let’s move,” Iwaizumi said quickly.

Iwaizumi jogged ahead and rounded a corner, looking around for any kakja, his guard up. He stopped and turned back to Akaashi. 

“It’s clear, come on!”

He heard Akaashi talking quietly to Yahaba, urging him to go faster. Kuroo helpfully put a map in their head to where he was with Bokuto, ready to create a portal. They had one more hallway to go down and then they could go out the door at the end. At least in theory that’s what they were going to do, but that all fell through when about halfway down the hall at least half a dozen kakja burst in, looking directly at them, ready to attack. Akaashi quickly dropped Yahaba’s arm and yelled,

“Stay back!” 

He pulled his other handgun out of its holster and started firing at the kakja. He hit one in the leg and grazed another’s arms before they dove to stand in the doorways, taking cover from his bullets. He moved up and continued to fire, shouting back at Iwaizumi and Suga, 

“Anytime you’d like to help feel free!”

Iwaizumi rolled my eyes and did something that made Oikawa swear and him wince. He flipped him upright in his arms and flung him over his shoulder, wrapping his arms around his neck. 

“Don’t let go!” His legs curled around his waist and his arms had a death grip on the front of his shirt.

Iwaizumi ran forward, grabbing the hunting knife from his belt and charging towards the kakja. 

He ducked into the first doorway and swooped down, almost falling on his face with the added weight of Oikawa on his back, but he quickly adjusted and righted himself. He grabbed the kakja by the front of the shirt and flung him out into the hall and heard a shot go off as he crumpled to the ground. He sprinted down the hall to where the other kakja were hiding. One jumped out, with a knife of his own, and started slashing at his chest. He dodged, slower than normal, but still able to miss the blow. He ducked low under the kakja’s arm, and twisted around as he whirled back with a jab aimed at Oikawa’s back. Iwaizumi raised his knife as he turned around and the blade sunk into the kakja’s back. He fell to the floor. Two down four to go. Iwaizumi heard two more shots from Akaashi’s direction and another body hitting the ground. Three down. 

“Great job,” Oikawa hissed in Iwaizumi’s ear. He could hear him still trying to hide how much pain he was in. “At this rate, we may get out of here in body bags. Remember what Akaashi said? Eight minutes? We may have three minutes left now.”

Iwaizumi cursed under his breath. Suga was rattling options off in his head, which didn’t help. Akaashi was shouting some of his favorite choice words while firing shot after shot at the kakja in our path. Yahaba was trailing behind him cautiously. Iwaizumi could tell he still was struggling to grasp what was real and what wasn’t at the moment. Kiyoko must have done a number in his head.

“Iwaizumi, can’t you freaking shift into something big and scary to get these jerks out of our way?” Akaashi yelled at him.

Not with Oikawa on his back he couldn’t. He ran through what he could do in his mind, desperate for a solution. Oikawa was right; they had to get out of here. But what could we do? Akaashi, Suga, and Iwaizumi were doing their best to get them out, but with Oikawa and Yahaba in the shape they were in, it just wasn’t enough. 

“Iwaizumi, let me help,” Oikawa said quietly. He’d lost the sarcastic bite and for once actually sounded sincere. “I can help.”

“Oikawa, you’re in no shape to fight,” Iwaizumi answered, taking down another kakja as he did. More just kept pouring into the hallway. “Besides… I know what they do when they capture and torture people. You’re powers are probably sedated, which means you can’t help that way. And since you can’t walk, hand-to-hand is a no-go either.”

“Then get me a damn gun,” Oikawa demanded. 

Akaashi dodged a shot from one of the kakja guards by ducking into a doorway next to Iwaizumi. He quickly loaded a new clip into one of his guns and handed it to Oikawa.

“Here!” he said. “We’ve got maybe a minute to get out of here, or else we’re all screwed.”

They took off with an almost renewed sense of purpose. Akaashi kept a firm hold on one of Yahaba’s hands, making sure he kept up with them. Oikawa shot down kakja after kakja, and even though he was a crappy shot, his efforts definitely helped. Soon, they’d made it to the exit.

Only to find it blocked by a tall, muscular, dark-skinned guy with a look of murder on his face. 

“Nakamura,” Yahaba said. It was the first time Iwaizumi had heard him speak since Akaashi had shown up with him, and he was shocked to hear how broken his voice sounded.

Iwaizumi noticed Akaashi squeeze Yahaba’s hand—whether to comfort him or to restrain him, I didn’t know, but I didn’t care because at that moment Oikawa decided to push himself off of Iwaizumi’s back. 

He stumbled when he landed on his own feet, but managed not to fall this time. Instead, he righted himself and stepped in front of Iwaizumi.

“Oikawa,” Iwaizumi said. “What are you…”

“Nakamura, get the hell out of our way,” Oikawa said firmly.

“Aw, how cute,” Nakamura said. “You actually think you have the strength to go against me?”

“I know I do,” Oikawa said. 

“Oh, really?” Nakamura smirked, raising an eyebrow at him. I could hear Akaashi and Suga readying their guns to fire. Even Yahaba shifted into a fighting stance. Iwaizumi braced himself for the fight that was coming. 

He remembered what Yahaba had said about Nakamura… about the weird anti-energy stuff that had knocked him out earlier. Iwaizumi couldn’t be sure, but he had his growing suspicions about his ability—most of which were based on dreams Kenma had told him about. Either way, he wasn’t eager to see this guy in action.

As it turned out, he didn’t need to. After a few heavy seconds of fixing him with his most intense glare, Oikawa threw his arms in the air with an ear-piercing scream. Despite the fact that his powers were under sedation and he shouldn’t have been able to use them, Nakamura was lifted off of his feet and thrown through the wall behind him and into the outside air. He was covered with a pile of rubble from the wall and didn’t seem to be getting out of that anytime soon. 

They all stood staring at Oikawa in shock for a few seconds, until Iwaizumi realized that he was swaying on his feet. Iwaizumi barely managed to catch him before he fell to the ground. 

“Hey, easy,” Iwaizumi said, pulling him back up into his arms. “You really over did it there.”

“Sorry,” he murmured, his eyes closing. “I just really… hate that guy.”

“How the hell did he do that?” Suga asked, his eyes wide with surprise. “Shouldn’t he still be under the power sedation?”

Iwaizumi shook his head and looked down at Oikawa in his arms, who was now unconscious, but breathing steadily. He had a small look of triumph on his face.

“I don’t understand it anymore than you,” he told Suga. “But now isn’t the time to worry about it. We need to get out of here.”

“My thoughts exactly.” 

Iwaizumi turned around to see Kuroo and Bokuto standing to the side. Both were grinning broadly.

“Come on,” Kuroo said. “Let’s get you guys back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated!


	8. Fires

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are different kinds of fires, but all are deadly.

Everything turned to chaos once they got back to the Academy. Oikawa and Yahaba were immediately whisked away to the infirmary the moment they arrived. Iwaizumi and Akaashi left after passing their own check-ups, leaving the two siblings at the mercy of the healers. Yahaba’s head was still spinning, and he felt sick to his stomach but he managed to hold down what very little he had in it. 

The next few hours were a blur of bandages, IV drips, nurses, healers, Oikawa cursing when they woke him up… the list went on and on. The entire time Yahaba tried to stay focused and pay attention, but his head hurt and honestly he really just wanted to sleep.

Eventually everyone left them alone, leaving only Oikawa and Yahaba in the room. They talked quietly for a few minutes before the medicine finally kicked in and Yahaba had no choice but to fall asleep. 

His dreams weren’t happy. Through them, he relived the torture he’d experienced the past couple of days, as well as everything the fear-spinner had shown him with her powers. But that wasn’t even the worst part of it. The worst part was when the fires entered his dreams.

That night is one of the few things from his childhood Yahaba remembered clearly. There was fire—lots of it— and people screaming in the streets. Yahaba’s family had gone over to the Iwaizumi’s house for dinner, but as soon as the first of the attacks started, Yahaba’s parents rushed them to their house so they could all get in their raid bunker. But everything went wrong.

Somewhere along the way, Oikawa was separated from them. Yahaba didn’t know what happened to him, and he’s never really had the chance to ask, but all he knew was one minute he was running right beside him and the next Oikawa was gone. Unfortunately, with everything that was going on, their parents didn’t realize he was gone until they got back to their house. By then, it was too late. 

Yahaba remembered going into the house right behind his parents, and almost immediately being grabbed up by a stream of water and tossed behind the couch. A few seconds later, his mother’s face appeared above him.

“Shigeru, I want you to stay here,” she said. “And stay very quiet, no matter what happens.”

She bent down and kissed him on the forehead.

“I love you sweetheart. So does your dad. Remember that, okay? And tell your brother, when you see him again.”

With that, Yahaba’s mom was gone. At that time, he didn’t realize that was the last thing she would ever say to him, even though now he understood she knew it would be. But right then, all Yahaba heard was the snap of her signature water whips as well as the heated whoosh of his dad’s flames. He wanted nothing more than to get up and watch his parents fight, believing as any nine year old would that his parents were invincible and nothing could possibly stop them, but Yahaba did as he was told and hid behind the couch, even when the window behind him was shattered in by a rock thrown from the street. He didn’t know how long he stayed back there, but at some point he realized that the sounds of fighting had stopped and was replaced with sounds of talking.

“Come on, Oikawa-san, I know you don’t want your family hurt,” an unknown voice said. “So just tell me. How do we get into Antse?”

“Leave them out of this,” Yahaba heard his dad say. “I’m the one you want. Fight me, not them.”

The voice laughed. “Oh please, you’re in no shape to fight right now. Besides, I’ve turned on the gas in your kitchen. Any tiny spark of flame and WHOOSH. There goes your house.”

Yahaba didn’t know why, but at that moment he dared to peak over the edge of the couch. What he saw almost knocked the wind out of him. There were his parents, beaten to the ground. His dad was lying in a torn up mess on the floor, one eye swollen shut and massive cuts on either of his cheeks. He was looking at Yahaba’s mom with a desperate expression in his good eye. 

His mom was on her knees with her back towards me, her head pulled back by her long brown hair. A boy no more than a few years older than Yahaba was holding onto her hair with one hand, and a silver dagger with the other. In the flickering lights of the street fires, Yahaba could barely make out the boy’s bowl cut hair. It’s blood-red color stood out in the dark of the room. His face was hidden from view, but Yahaba remembered his voice clearly enough, and the fact that he had a dagger pressed into his mom’s neck hard enough it was already drawing blood.

“I’m not telling you anything, you little brat,” his dad said firmly. 

“Very well,” he said. Then with one quick motion, he pulled the dagger across Yahaba’s mom’s throat. He let go of her hair and his mom’s body fell lifelessly to the ground.

“Mom!” Yahaba screamed, which was probably not the smartest thing to do, since the boy with the dagger had yet to see him. But he’d just watched his mother be murdered. He had a right to scream if he wanted to.

The boy immediately spun around to face him. His bangs were hanging in his eyes, so he couldn’t see them well, but he gave Yahaba a feral grin when he saw him.

“Aw, one of the children,” he said. “Good, just what I needed.”

“Shigeru, run!” Yahaba’s dad shouted to me.

But Yahaba was frozen in place. Even if he had wanted to heed his dad’s warning and get out of there, he didn’t think he could’ve.

The boy was moving towards him, his dagger swinging in his hand by his side, dripping with blood. He was going to use that on him, Yahaba realized. But still he couldn’t move.

What happened next happened so fast Yahaba still has trouble processing it all. Right before the boy with the dagger reached him, his dad grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back. Surprisingly, he resisted his pull. On instinct, he spun around and stabbed him. He fell to the ground right beside Yahaba’s mom. 

Neither the boy nor Yahaba moved for a few seconds. They were both staring at his lifeless parents, him in irritation and Yahaba in complete disbelief. 

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “I wasn’t supposed to kill _him_.”

He seemed to have forgotten Yahaba was still there, so he jumped over the back of the couch and stared at him.

“You killed them,” Yahaba stated, loud enough to be heard over the din of the streets, but not to the point where he was shouting. “You killed my parents.”

He turned around and looked at Yahaba again. “Oh, it’s you,” he said, as if he had forgotten he was there. “Well, I guess I could take you in his place. Maybe your family up north will pay a ransom for you.”

Yahaba didn’t pay attention to whatshe was saying. Instead, he clenched his hands into fists and glared at him with all the hatred and emotion that was boiling up inside of him. 

“You. Killed. My. Parents.” Yahaba ground out.

“Yeah, so sorry, whatever,” he muttered. “Can we go now?”

“YOU KILLED MY PARENTS!” Yahaba finally screamed, throwing his hands out in front of him.

He’s still not sure what happened after that. He remembered screaming as a huge blast of fire shot from his hands and the boy swearing loudly as he ran out of the way. 

As fire filled the room, Yahaba realized the mistake he’d made too late. The dagger boy had turned on the gas from their stove and had allowed it to leak through the house. He’d done this to prevent his dad from using his fire powers, but Yahaba didn’t think about this until a sudden explosion threw him backwards through the window at his back. He landed hard on the ground with the breath knocked out of him and his energy completely drained from over exertion of his powers. In a few seconds he passed out cold.

…

After delivering the other two to the infirmary and passing quick check-ups themselves, Akaashi and Iwaizumi were whisked away to Commander Washijo’s office. It was the last place either of them wanted to be right then, but they didn’t have any choice. 

So there they were, sitting and fidgeting uncomfortably in their newly cleaned uniforms. It was such a different feeling than what they’d had only a few days ago when they had first been brought in here to be given their assignment. 

_Okay guys, you know the plan?_ Kuroo said in their minds. 

It had been his idea to have them be telepathically linked while they were in Washijo’s office. Based on what Kenma had told them about certain leaders of the Academy being in leagues with the kakja, they all had developed their suspicions of Washijo being one of those and the reason their mission went south. Matsukawa had instructed Akaashi to try and get the Commander to admit to anything he could. (Being an IGS, Akaashi was of course better suited for information wedeling than Iwaizumi was). Iwaizumi’s part of the plan was to record the whole conversation on the tiny recorder they had just had installed into his watch. Kuroo and Matsukawa were on the other end of the telepathic link, giving them instructions on what to do, but Akaashi and Iwaizumi knew a lot of what they did was going to be on our own.

_We’re good,_ Iwaizumi answered, glancing towards Akaashi. He looked just as anxious as Iwaizumi felt.

_Washijo’s on the move,_ Matsukawa said next. _He’ll be there soon._

_Got it,_ Akaashi responded. He pulled at his fingers nervously, straightened his uniform shirt, and sat up taller. He was getting into character. With a slight smile, Akaashi turned to Iwaizumi.

“You ready?” he asked.

Iwaizumi returned his smile. “As I’ll ever be.”

Akaashi turned his head facing forwards again, his gray-green eyes shining with unmatched determination. While right now they were the light color Iwaizumi was used to seeing, he couldn’t help but remember when his eyes had flashed the dark stormy of his kakja side. 

_Hey Hajime, focus,_ Suga’s voice sounded. _Remember you’ve got a dirtbag to nab. You can ponder about Akaashi’s freaky eye-color changes another time._

_Aren’t you suppose to be preparing for the attack?_ Iwaizumi asked Suga in an irritated tone.

Iwaizumi was thankful he only sent that to him, because he didn’t want to give Akaashi anymore reason to regret telling him his secret than what he already had. Honestly, Iwaizumi was still trying to process it all himself. But Suga was right. They needed to focus on Washijo right now. The rest would be explained later.

That’s when Washijo himself entered the room. Akaashi and Iwaizumi quickly jumped to their feet as he walked by, waiting for him to sit down at his desk before moving to sit in two chairs across from him.

“Glad to see you made it back safely,” the Commander said gruffly after Akaashi and Iwaizumi had made themselves comfortable—or at least as comfortable as they were   
going to get. Iwaizumi subtly reached to turn on the recorder in his watch on as Washijo continued. “Though, I understand your mission encountered some… difficulties?”

“Yes sir,” Iwaizumi said, assuming his role as the team leader. “We were attacked outside of the borders of Rhymeer on our first night. Then on the second night, still at least half a day’s journey away from the… encampment, Oikawa and Yahaba were captured.”

“I see,” Washijo said. He glanced between the two of them. “But you were able to successfully rescue them?”

“Yes sir,” Akaashi answered. 

“Well then I believe that you all completed your mission well enough. Congratulations. Akaashi-kun, you, Oikawa-kun, and Yahaba-kun will be permitted to graduate and as for you, Iwaizumi-kun, I look forward to seeing your continued work as a mission leader.”

“Thank you sir,” they both said quietly.

“Now if that’s all, I do have some important paperwork to finish so if you two don’t mind…” He lowered his head and began writing on a piece of paper. Their cue to leave.  
Akaashi glanced at Iwaizumi from the corner of his eye. Iwaizumi gave the slightest of nods in response. Time to do what they really came here for.

“Sir, there was one other thing I believe I should mention,” Akaashi said slowly, but confidently. 

“Hm, and what would that be?” Washijo asked without looking up.

“The kakja encampment, sir,” Akaashi said. “It wasn’t a temporary camp as we were led to believe. It was a permanent building, complete with research laboratories, high-tech prisoner cells and interrogation rooms...”

“Well, I’m glad you brought us this information, Akaashi-kun. I’ll make sure to alert the field commanders in charge of that area and let them know what they’re dealing with. Good work.”

“That isn’t all sir,” Akaashi continued. “While our orders were originally to not infiltrate, we had no choice when Oikawa and Yahaba were captured. Once inside, I gathered even more information I believe you will find interesting.”

“Yes?” Washijo asked, looking up at Akaashi with a stern expression. He was trying his patience. Iwaizumi glanced at Akaashi, noticing he wasn’t even flinching under his glare. 

“The cells we found Oikawa and Yahaba in, sir, were specially designed for the two of them in mind. The cells were located right next to each other, with a fog-window placed in the common wall so that it was possible for them to see into the other’s cell when the fog was deactivated. Yahaba’s cell was reinforced with rubber—a material he cannot control—while Oikawa’s was clear of everything except for the torture table. Even his table had been modified. Instead of using normal metal or leather bindings, his were electric. There was no way he would have been able to use his telekinesis against those.”

“What are you suggesting, Akaashi?” Washijo asked in a steely tone, leaning ever so slightly across his desk. 

Akaashi didn’t even waver. “Sir, I believe that there was a possibility our mission was compromised from the start.”

Washijo turned to Iwaizumi, just like he had expected. Because Akaashi held a lower rank than he did, he couldn’t make an accusation like that without Iwaizumi’s prior knowledge and agreement. So of course, Washijo would ask Iwaizumi to confirm what he was saying. 

“Iwaizumi? What is your say on this?”

“I agree with my subordinate, Commander,” I said. “Zeta Akaashi is the IGS on my team, and I trust his judgment.”

Washijo leaned back into his chair and pressed his fingers together. For a moment, he didn’t say anything. Over the mind link, Iwaizumi could hear Akaashi silently freaking out while Kuroo and Matsukawa tried to calm him down. On the outside, however, Akaashi kept a mask of complete calm. 

Finally, Washijo stood up and turned his back to them, looking out of the window onto the training yard where students of every year were working to make preparations for the impending kakja attack. 

“I understand the true implications of your accusation, Akaashi-kun. As I’m sure both of you are fully aware of,” Washijo said.

Neither of them spoke. Akaashi’s thoughts blurred with Iwaizumi’s over what he was meaning. Then the Commander said something that surprised them both.

“Excellent job, Akaashi-kun. You truly are one of the best Intelligence Gatherers we’ve had at this academy in years.”

“I, uh… thank you, sir?” Akaashi responded.

“Of course, because you are so good, you’ve left me with very little options.”

Just then, Washijo spun around and pointed a gun straight at Akaashi. Even though he pushed back into his seat in shock, Akaashi barely let any emotion come to his face. 

“Sir!” Iwaizumi protested, hoping to draw the Commander’s attention from Akaashi and onto his. “This isn’t necessary.”

“You will be silent, Iwaizumi,” Washijo said, moving the gun to point at him briefly before returning to Akaashi. 

Akaashi held his head up straight as he glared Washijo down. Even from where Iwaizumi was sitting beside him, he could see his eye color flickering, wanting to turn to the dark stormy gray he shared with his sister. Iwaizumi didn’t understand the implication of what the eye color change meant, only that it was somehow tied to Akaashi’s kakja side. 

“So it _was_ you who gave the information to the kakja,” Akaashi said. 

“Of course it was me,” Washijo said. “While some of the other Commanders are just as involved with the kakja as I, none were in the position to assign _your_ team this mission or to inform the kakja of your itinerary. Which was a difficult task, especially when I was forced to offer you an extra day in Rhymeer. Though, thanks to predictably rash personalities of Oikawa Tooru and even you, Iwaizumi, I was confident you wouldn’t accept the offer.”

“But why?” Akaashi asked. “Why would you involve yourself with them, and why was our team your target?”

“Well, the first can be answered simply. I, much like yourself, young Akaashi, am a pala. Not pure, unfortunately, but enough to where I simply chose the easier path of be a full kakja that being a full kaswe. As for your second question, surely you can answer that?”

Akaashi didn’t respond, but instead glared at him. His eyes were slowly turning darker and Iwaizumi realized what was going on. He was struggling to contain his darker side, which no doubt wanted to jump up, knock the gun out of Washijo’s hand, and then shoot him. But Akaashi knew what he needed to do, and couldn’t allow himself to lose control.

_Iwaizumi,_ he said over the link, _answer him please._

“You obviously wanted Yahaba because of the knowledge he has about Antse,” Iwaizumi said. “And Oikawa proved as a good tool against him, because of course he would want to protect his brother.”

“Mm, close, but not quite,” Washijo said. “Yahaba was one of the targets, and it is true that Oikawa was an added bonus. But no. The true target… was him.”

He gestured the gun sharply at Akaashi.

Akaashi’s eyes widened slightly.

“Me?” he asked, though his tone held more of a disbelieving laugh than an actual question.

“Your sister is positive that you will one day join our side,” Washijo answered. “Though I originally doubted her confidence, I can see how much you’re struggling right now to keep back your kakja side, so maybe she is right. You’re a lot more kakja than you would like to believe, Akaashi.”

“If you’re so sure I’ll join your side, then why are you pointing a gun at me?” Akaashi asked quietly, his voice holding a harsh edge that Iwaizumi admit made him worry.

“Because the last thing I want is for your sister to get what she wants,” Washijo said. “That girl climbed the ranks in an impossible way, and I don’t appreciate her outranking me. So, I plan on taking away what she wants most.”

Then he pulled the trigger. Akaashi moved quickly enough to where the bullet hit him in the shoulder instead of the chest where Washijo had been aiming. He still screamed out in pain and fell to his knees. He didn’t notice Washijo raising his gun for a second shot, this one guaranteed to kill. 

Iwaizumi would admit it was probably stupid of him, but at that moment he sort of stopped thinking. Kenma always told him that there are times when he acted on pure animal instinct—a side effect of his powers, he guessed—and right then was one of those times. Iwaizumi was the alpha male, wanting to protect a member of his pack. So that’s what he did. Without even taking a second to tell himself he was an idiot, he jumped in front of the bullet. What would’ve been a kill shot to Akaashi’s head instead caught him in the stomach. 

Iwaizumi fell down next to Akaashi, not even able to scream out the pain was so bad. His abdomen exploded in pain, blinding every single one of his senses. His head spun and he couldn’t really process what was happening other than that someone—Iwaizumi thought it was Akaashi—pressed their hand firmly against the flaming wound. It only made the pain worse, and he could hear the horrible squishing sound of blood squeezing through his fingers.

“Stupid kid,” Washijo muttered, just as the sound of his office door opening rang in Iwaizumi’s ears.

“Commander Washijo, stand down!” Iwaizumi recognized that voice. Matsukawa. He was here. But how?

“Not today, boy,” Washijo answered.

There was a sound of crashing glass. Iwaizumi turned his head just barely in time to see Commander Washijo fly out through the window. He’d forgotten he was a flier. Must be nice… being able to fly.

A ripping pain through his stomach brought Iwaizumi’s thoughts back to the present. He cried out in pain. Akaashi’s face appeared in his line in vision. 

“Iwaizumi, you idiot, why did you do that?” he asked, tears threatening to stream down his face. His shoulder, which Iwaizumi could barely see, was a bloody mess. It was bleeding freely, since he had his good hand covering Iwaizumi’s wound instead of his own.

“You’re hurt,” Iwaizumi said.

“Forget about me!” Akaashi said. Iwaizumi realized he was directing this at him as much as he was at his brother.

“Iwaizumi, you shouldn’t have taken that bullet,” he said.

“Isss ‘k’,” Iwaizumi said, slurring his words. His world was slowly growing dimmer. Iwaizumi could feel his energy draining away with every passing second. His middle felt like it was on fire. “I… heal quickly. My powers… let me.”

“Except that bullet was tainted,” Akaashi said. “Nakamura’s anti-energy abilities. The bullet was coated with it. Iwaizumi, it’s draining your powers. You aren’t going to be able to heal.”

“Bu… wha’ ‘bout you?” Iwaizumi managed to ask. Surely the anti-energy drained away his powers and energy as well.

“The anti-energy doesn’t affect me like it does you. A perk of being half evil, I guess.” His voice held a slight tone of bitterness, but also fear. He was scared for him. Even though his shirt was now covered with as much of his own blood as it was Iwaizumi, he was scared for him.

“Keiji, we really need to get him out of here,” Matsukawa said from off to the side. Iwaizumi couldn’t see him. He could barely hear him.

“A… ‘kaashi,” Iwaizumi said slowly. He couldn’t remember what was happening. Why was he in so much pain? 

The black haired male turned to look at him. “Don’t worry, Iwaizumi. We’ll take care of you. You’re going to be okay.”

His words were comforting. Iwaizumi didn’t really remember who he was, or why he was there. But he made him feel a little better as he slipped into the world of the unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! Comments and kudos etc are greatly appreciated!


	9. Worries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After returning to the Academy, everyone dwells on their worries.

Akaashi walked through the halls of the infirmary, his shoulder pulsating with pain and the dark energy still in his system. 

“You know you should probably be sitting down,” a voice said from behind him. 

Akaashi turned to see Kuroo turning the corner, a smirk on his face.

“What do you want, Kuroo?”

“If I tell you, promise you won’t give me the cold shoulder?”

“Is that suppose to be a joke?” Akaashi asked. “Because my shoulder doesn’t appreciate it.”

“Sorry, it was difficult to resist,” Kuroo admitted. His smirk fell slightly. “But I came to find you. I heard what happened, and knew the bullet would’ve been tainted, so I wanted to see how you were doing… Considering.”

“Why would you care?” Akaashi asked, walking past Kuroo. Only to stop when Kuroo grabbed his arm.

“Akaashi, listen I know how this is for you, okay?”

“How? How do you know Kuroo?”

Kuroo sighed, dropping Akaashi’s arm. 

“Because I’m like you,” he said. “I’m a pure-pala.”

Akaashi took a step back. “Really?”

Kuroo nodded. “My mom was a kakja. I didn’t know my dad, but that doesn’t matter. You didn’t sense it?”

“Yes,” Akaashi said with a sigh. “I sensed it about you, but didn’t know how or have the time to bring it up. Also I wasn’t sure because you don’t have fangs.”

He gestured to his own pointed canines. 

“Oh yeah,” Kuroo said. He waved a hand in front of his mouth and suddenly two fangs appeared. 

“Glamour?” Akaashi asked. 

“Yeah,” Kuroo answered. “Normally I resort to shape shifting it away but once I came in contact with you I got the ability to glamour instead. Much less painful.”

“When you made contact with me? What does that mean?”

“Well that’s how my powers work. I come in contact with a kaswe or a kakja or a pala and I obtain their powers. That’s how I got these glamour powers. From you.”

“From me?” 

Kuroo blinked. “Yeah. You didn’t know?”

“No I mean… I did. But I always thought of it as a dark power. You know, one that kaswe can’t use.”

“Well, it can be,” Kuroo said. “If you don’t use it correctly.”

“So _you_ know how to use it, then?” Akaashi asked. 

“I do. And I can teach you, if you want.”

“Really?” Akaashi asked. “But why would you do that?”

“Because I’m genuinely a nice guy?” 

Akaashi stared at him. “Seriously. Why would you teach me to use my powers?”

“Look, Akaashi. I can’t really explain it and maybe its because I also obtained Kenma’s powers but…” He paused and looked down the hall. “Actually, you know what don’t worry about that right now. I think Iwaizumi is close to waking up. You should probably be there when he does.”

Akaashi looked down the hall to where Iwaizumi’s room was. He could sense his mind stirring, and figured Kuroo was right.

“Okay, but this conversation isn’t…” he turned to see Kuroo had disappeared. 

“Over.” Akaashi finished. He sighed, and walked down to Iwaizumi’s room. 

…

Bokuto kicked their legs impatiently while they sat beside Oikawa and Yahaba’s bedsides, waiting for their cousins to wake up. 

“They’ll wake up soon enough,” a quiet voice said from the doorway. 

Bokuto turned to see Kenma walking into the room, a handheld device in his hands. 

“Hey hey hey! Kenma”

“Hi Koutarou.”

“Why are you here?”

“Koushi suggested I come check on Tooru and Shigeru.”

Bokuto looked back at their cousins. “Ah, well they’re doing alright, I guess. Actually I don’t really know. They’ve been asleep for the last few hours.”

“The medicine the healers gave them should be wearing off soon,” Kenma said. “If you’re here, I’m going to go on. Hajime will be waking up soon.”

He turned around and left, leaving Bokuto alone again. They hummed to themself, noticing Yahaba stirring. 

“Wha- where am I?”

“Shigeru, are you awake?” Bokuto asked, their face hanging over Yahaba’s. 

“ _Hngh_ Koutarou?” Yahaba groaned. “Why are you here?”

“I helped rescue you!” Bokuto exclaimed. 

“Rescue me? What do you… oh.”

Bokuto frowned as Yahaba’s eyes glazed over. “Hey, don’t do that,” they said. “Focus on me, okay?” 

Yahaba blinked. “Koutarou? Where’s Tooru?”

“He’s right over there,” Bokuto pointed to the bed next to Yahaba’s, where Oikawa was starting to stir as well. 

“Wha’ happen?” Oikawa asked in a slurred voice. 

“Hey Tooru! How are you feeling?” Bokuto asked.

“Like five day old shit,” Oikawa responded. “Shigeru are you awake?”

“Yeah,” Yahaba answered. 

“You’re both awake!!” Bokuto exclaimed. “Which is good! It means we can move you guys out sooner!”

“Wait, move us out?” Oikawa asked. “What do you mean?”

Bokuto scratched their face. “Well, everyone is talking about how the Academy is going to be attacked. They’re moving out the wounded, which includes you guys, Akaashi, and Iwaizumi.”

“Akaashi and Iwaizumi were wounded?” Yahaba asked. “What happened?”

“They were shot confronting one of the Commanders,” Bokuto answered. “As far as I know, they’re fine, but none of you are in shape to fight.”

“We aren’t going anywhere,” Oikawa said. “We’re more than capable of fighting, and you’re going to need us.”

As if to prove his point, Oikawa pushed his way off of his cot, wobbling only slightly as he sat up.

“Tooru, you can’t,” Bokuto protested, rushing over to where their cousin was trying to stand up. 

“I can and I will, now let me up Koutarou.”

“He’s right, you know,” Yahaba stated. “We’re staying.”

“Guuuys you can’t stay,” Bokuto whined. “What if something bad happens to you? Again?”

“Nothing will happen,” Oikawa insisted. “Now Koutarou, if you would go get some water please.”

Bokuto nodded excitedly, and ran out of the room, leaving the other two alone. 

…

Matsukawa looked across the table at the group of people gathered there. First there was Suga. 

Not much of a concern to him.

Then there was Hanamaki, his best friend from their academy days, was sitting next to him. Across from him sat Tanaka Ryuunosuke, a drill leader in for the Situational Specialists, and Sawamura Daichi, an IGS agent from the city.

He knew Tanaka and Daichi from the academy too, having been really good friends with them before they all graduated. 

He held a healthy, respectful, fear of both of them. 

Right now, Daichi was going over the information he and Suga had gathered about the corrupt commanders - which at the moment wasn’t a lot. They’d only caught one other besides Washijo, but interrogations were still ongoing. 

Really, Matsukawa wasn’t paying much attention, even though he knew he should be. He was too worried about Akaashi, who even though the healers said would be okay, had still been exposed to dark energy through that gunshot.

As pala, they could endure more dark energy than the everyday kaswe, but that didn’t mean it was _good_ for them. In reality, it was almost just as bad. Where dark energy would drain a kaswe of their life force, it tainted a kakja’s, slowly eating away at what was good in them and making them turn dark. 

The healers had tonics that could reduce the effects of the dark energy, but Matsukawa was still worried about his younger brother. 

“Matsukawa, are you paying attention?” Daichi asked. 

“Huh? No sorry,” Matsukawa said. “I’m worried about Keiji.”

“We understand,” Daichi said. “But this is important. Tanaka is about to list out a plan for if the kakja invade.”

Matsukawa nodded slowly, though he still couldn’t find it in himself to pay attention. 

Things were starting to go really wrong. First, Akaashi’s team was attacked on their way to Rhymeer. By kakja that were connected with their sister Kiyoko. The same sister that had been after them for years. 

Matsukawa wasn’t prepared to face the days to come. 

...

Iwaizumi woke up in an unfamiliar room with Akaashi sitting in a chair beside him. 

He tried sitting up only to have an exploding pain in his stomach stop him. Akaashi looked up from the book he was reading at the sound of Iwaizumi’s groan.

“Iwaizumi, you’re awake,” Akaashi stated, setting his book down. “You probably shouldn’t move.”

“Akaashi,” Iwaizumi managed to say, once the pain in his stomach dulled to a constant ache. “What happened?”

“You were shot,” Akaashi answered shortly. “It’s been about twelve hours. What do you remember?”

“We… we confronted Washijo, right?”

Akaashi nodded. “During the confrontation he shot me in the shoulder. He would’ve shot me again, if you hadn’t jumped in front of it.”

Iwaizumi glanced at Akaashi’s sling and bandaged shoulder, then gently felt his stomach which was tightly wrapped. Which is when he noticed his shirt was missing.

“You’ll get your shirt back,” Akaashi said. “Don’t worry.”

He sounded bitter, not that Iwaizumi blamed him. He had been a total idiot. 

“Even though you are an idiot for intentionally getting shot,” Akaashi said quietly, “you did save my life. So thanks.”

“You would’ve done the same for me,” Iwaizumi said. 

“Maybe,” Akaashi responded solemnly. 

“Why maybe?”

Akaashi blew a puff of air out of his mouth.

“I’m just worried, is all,” he said. “The last few days, it seems… it seems like the kakja part of me is getting stronger - more forceful. I’m worried I’m not always going to be able to push it back.”

Iwaizumi knew he struggled with having the two separate parts of who he was, but he hadn’t realized it was that serious. He’d played it off like it wasn’t that bad. 

“Akaashi…” Iwaizumi started, only to be interrupted by Kenma and Suga entering the room.

“Hey Hajime, glad to see you’re awake,” Kenma said.

“Thanks, I feel like shit though,” Iwaizumi admitted. 

“Don’t look much better either, to be honest,” Suga said. “Nice gutshot.”

“Ha.”

“Anyway,” Kenma continued, after lightly shoving Suga in the arm. “We wanted to tell you guys that Yahaba and Oikawa are awake as well, and doing much better, though they both insist on joining in the battle.”

“The battle?” Iwaizumi asked. “Has it started?” 

He would’ve jumped out of bed right then, had Akaashi not held him back with his good arm. 

“Not yet,” he said. “But you and I are grounded, just like the other two, so don’t be getting any ideas about going out there and fighting.”

“I wasn’t…” Iwaizumi said, even though he couldn’t stand the idea of sitting and doing nothing. 

“It’s okay, Hajime,” Kenma said. “You’ve done enough already.”

“Yeah, thanks to you and Akaashi, we’ve figured out that a lot of the Commanders here were involved with the kakja somehow.” Suga turned to Akaashi. “Oh, by the way, Daichi’s here.”

Akaashi’s already pale face grew even paler. “What?” he asked. “Why?”

“To interrogate anyone who may have been involved,” Kenma answered.

“Wait, who are you talking about?” Iwaizumi asked. “You don’t mean Sawamura Daichi do you?”

“That’s him,” Akaashi said. “You remember him, right Iwaizumi? He’s…”

“He’s like, the best IGS of our generation,” Suga said, stating what they all already knew. “Maybe even in centuries. He graduated with Matsukawa, not just at the top of his specialty, but at the top of the entire graduating class. He’s freaky good. He transferred to the city last year when Matsukawa’s team was split up. But Akaashi and I both had him as a drill instructor.”

“He’s terrifying,” Akaashi summed up. 

“But don’t worry about him,” Kenma said. “They’re going to send Oikawa and Yahaba in soon, and then you four are going to be teleported to the city for now.”

“What?” Iwaizumi asked.

“Not happening,” Akaashi protested, apparently new to this information as well. “Look, we might not be able to fight, but I’ll be damned if I’m being taken away from here.”

“Matsukawa said so, Akaashi,” Suga said.

“Then damn him too,” he countered. “And you can tell him I said that, Suga, because I am not leaving. Not while there is still _something_ I can do here.”

Kenma and Suga exchanged glances and sighs. 

“Okay, fine, we’ll talk to him,” Suga said. “You two wait here.”

“Not like I have much of a choice,” Iwaizumi muttered.

They left the room and Akaashi slouched back into his seat, wincing as he jostled his shoulder. 

“How’s the arm?” Iwaizumi asked.

“Hurts like hell,” Akaashi muttered. “How’s the… how did Suga phrase it? The ‘gutshot’?”

“That would be the one,” Iwaizumi said. “And it feels like a comic explosion going off in my stomach, but I’ll live.”

“Barely,” Akaashi said. 

They settled into an uncomfortable silence. Akaashi didn’t seem keen to revamp the conversation they had been having before Kenma and Suga came in, but Iwaizumi didn’t like where they had left off.

“Akaashi…” Iwaizumi started again. He looked up at him, his gray-green eyes flashing. Iwaizumi took as deep a breath as his stomach would allow, then surged forward with what he had to say. “Look, I know you’re worried about all this kakja stuff, but please believe me when I say that I trust you. I trust that you’re strong enough to maintain control, even if it is becoming a bigger struggle.”

“I appreciate the thought, Iwaizumi, but… what if Washijo was right? What if I really am going to turn one day?”

“Akaashi, you can’t take any stock in what he was saying. He was talking out of spite and jealousy. Nothing he said was true. Besides, don’t you think I know you better   
than he does?” Iwaizumi reached out and took Akaashi’s good hand in his. “I can’t believe you will ever fully change. I refuse to accept that.”

He gave a slight smile, but didn’t look up at Iwaizumi. “Thanks.” He was quiet for a few more seconds before saying “But Iwaizumi… just in case I… ever do turn... I’m trusting you to take care of it.”

Iwaizumi didn’t know how to respond to that. The gravity of what he was asking him to do hit him with the force of a freight train and all he could do was sit in stunned silence.

“Iwaizumi, please?”

“Akaashi, you realize what you’re asking me to do, right?” Iwaizumi managed to say.

He looked up at him and finally met Iwaizumi’s eyes. They were light gray-green now, not a trace of kakja darkness in them. Tears brimmed around the edges, but still Akaashi managed a firm expression. 

“Iwaizumi, please, I need you to promise me this. Really, you’re the only person I can trust to do it. I can’t trust myself to regain and maintain control if it happens and as for Oikawa and Yahaba… neither of them would ever be able to make the sacrifice, not after all they’ve lost. And I know it’s asking you to take on a huge burden, but it’s the only way and…”

“I’ll do it,” Iwaizumi said, interrupting him. 

Akaashi’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

Iwaizumi nodded. “Yeah, I will, if it ever comes to that. But it never will.”

Iwaizumi was confident about that. He had faith that Akaashi was strong enough to fight it back on his own. 

“Thanks Iwaizumi,” Akaashi said, breathing a sigh of relief. He glanced up at the door. “Now the only thing left to do is to tell Oikawa and Yahaba.”

“What are you going to tell them?”

“I have to tell them everything,” he answered. “Except what we just agreed on. I’d feel better if that stayed between you and me?”

“Sure, of course,” Iwaizumi said. “Though, Suga will eventually find out. And Kuroo, if he hangs around. And probably Kenma too.”

“That’s fine, I expected that much. Besides, those three are like me. They’re walking banks of secrets. They’ll be okay.”

“You have a very valid point there,” Iwaizumi said, allowing a small smile to form.

And that’s when Oikawa slammed open the door, stomped over to Akaashi, glared him down with the harshest glare Iwaizumi had ever seen out of him and said:

“Akaashi Keiji, you have a hell of a lot of explaining to do.”

…

A few minutes of silence after Bokuto left, Oikawa finally spoke with a shaky voice. 

“Shigeru, what’s going to happen?” he asked.

Yahaba shook his head, not understanding the question. 

“I mean, the kakja and kaswe have been on the verge of war for almost twenty years, and sure, the kakja have been gaining strength while the kaswe are just barely managing to hold steady, but I still never thought that it would get to the point where our own Commanders would turn on us.” Oikawa’s voice shook slightly as he spoke, but he didn’t stop. “So, what’s going to happen, now that we know what’s going on? Is it going to turn to war?”

“I… don’t know, Tooru.”

Oikawa took a breath and looked at Yahaba, an unreadable expression in his eyes. 

“It’s what the kakja want,” Oikawa said. “A war with the kaswe. They know they have the upper hand—more strength, more bodies… possibly even better plans. And we can’t do anything about it.”

“Tooru…”

“Shigeru you don’t understand,” he said. “After they put us through the fear-spinner visions and they took us back to our rooms… Nakamura came and saw me. He… he told me a lot of stuff. About the kakja and their plans. It was mostly hubris, but I think he was trying to get me to join their side.” Oikawa gave a bitter laugh at that. “As if that would happen. Either way, I know what they’re planning ultimately. I don’t… I don’t know if we’re going to be strong enough to fight them.”

Yahaba watched as Oikawa tried to cover his face with his hands, only to stop and curse when he realized that his left arm was in a cast from where the kakja broken her wrist. 

“Dammit,” he swore softly, staring accusingly at his hand. 

He looked so broken down, it was hard for Yahaba to watch. And the fact that his older brother was admitting he wasn’t sure about them being strong enough to go to war against the kakja made Yahaba really concerned. That wasn’t the kind of thing Oikawa would admit.

“Tooru, look at me,” Yahaba said, leaning over to touch Oikawa’s shoulder, careful not to touch any of the bruises or cuts that he could see. He lifted his head slightly, his eyes holding an emotion Yahaba couldn’t describe, but understood nevertheless. He took a breath before continuing.

“We’re going to be okay,” I said. “We’ve got each other back, finally. And Iwaizumi, and Akaashi…”

“Oh, Akaashi!” Bokuto’s voice said. “Did you guys know he was part kakja?”

“What?” Oikawa shouted, turning to look at Bokuto. “Part kakja? What do you mean?”

“Yeah, I guess you guys didn’t know?” Bokuto’s face fell. “Dammit, I probably wasn’t suppose to tell you that.”

“Bokuto, it’s okay, we probably were going to find out about it anyway…”

“I’m going to get answers,” Oikawa said, standing up. He only wobbled slightly as he stormed out of the room.

“Tooru, wait!” Yahaba shouted. He threw himself out of bed, stumbling and would’ve fallen on his face if it weren’t for Bokuto. 

“I have to go after him,” Yahaba told Bokuto. 

Bokuto nodded and helped Yahaba back to his feet. Yahaba quickly thanked Bokuto and took after Oikawa. 

Oikawa didn’t seem to be in much pain as he stormed into the room Akaashi and Iwaizumi were in. 

“Akaashi Keiji, you have a hell of a lot of explaining to do,” Oikawa demanded. 

“Oikawa?” Akaashi asked. He glanced at Yahaba as he walked through the door. “Yahaba?”

There was no beating around the bush for Oikawa. He jumped straight to the point.

“Akaashi, why didn’t you tell us you were part kakja?” Oikawa asked, his voice harsh.

He glared at Akaashi with one of his strongest glares, while Akaashi and Iwaizumi both stared at him in shock. Yahaba shifted his gaze between the three, utterly confused as to what was going on.

“How… how did you know?” Akaashi asked.

Oikawa faltered slightly, but not for long. He crossed his arms stubbornly over his chest, even though he was careful about his wounds.

“Bokuto told us,” Yahaba said quickly, before Oikawa could say something else. 

Yahaba looked over at Akaashi, who exchanged an almost desperate glance with Iwaizumi. He studied the two of them more. Iwaizumi was lying on the bed, with his head propped up on a few pillows. White bandages were wrapped around his stomach. Akaashi was sitting in a chair beside him, with his shoulder bandaged and arm in a sling. Yahaba thought back to what Bokuto had said about them getting shot. All things considered, they actually didn’t look that bad off. 

“You knew already, didn’t you?” Yahaba asked Iwaizumi. Oikawa swiveled his heated glare from Akaashi to Iwaizumi when he spoke. Yahaba wasn’t sure what he planned to accomplish with that glare, but it definitely made the other two shift uncomfortably.

“I was going to tell you,” Akaashi said. “There just wasn’t time before.”

“But you told him,” Oikawa said, gesturing angrily at Iwaizumi, even though he hadn’t answered Yahaba’s question. “Apparently there was time for that!”

“I asked him to,” Iwaizumi said. “We were attacked by Kiyoko—Akaashi’s older sister, remember?”

Yahaba rubbed one of his wrists absentmindedly, thinking about the cuffs that had held him in that chair. He answered slowly: “We remember. She well… we…”

“We had a lovely reunion,” Oikawa snapped. “With tea, cakes, and our worst fears coming true right before our eyes!”  
Iwaizumi winced at the bite in his words. “Yes, well as you… figured out, she’s a fear-spinner. She attacked us, and showed herself to Akaashi and me. After the visions were over, Akaashi…”

“I had a hard time recovering,” Akaashi interrupted. “Iwaizumi asked if there was anything he should know before we continued on the mission. So I told him.”

“About being part kakja?” Oikawa asked.

“Yes,” Akaashi said. “But also, there’s more I haven’t told you guys yet. I… I have powers.”

“Oh great, more secrets,” Oikawa said, rolling his eyes. “I’m assuming Iwaizumi knew about those too.”

“Uh, yes. Matsukawa mentioned it to him last year, and in order to find you guys, I kinda had to explain them to him.” 

“What are your powers?” Yahaba asked, before Oikawa could spew more accusations at the two.

Honestly, Yahaba didn’t know what to think right then. All his thoughts were muddled, and didn’t seem to be getting any clearer. Akaashi was part kakja, he had powers.  
Yahaba rubbed his temples slowly, feeling a headache forming as Akaashi started to explain his powers.

“I’m an ime,” he said. “It means I can sense the memories of the people and places around me. I also don’t forget anything, no matter how hard I try.”

Yahaba’s head continued to throb worse and worse as Akaashi continued to explain. Suddenly, he wasn’t in the room anymore, but instead sitting out on the Academy’s central quad with Oikawa, Akaashi, and Iwaizumi. Oikawa and Iwaizumi were sparring while Akaashi and he sat by and watched. 

Yahaba blinked and shook his head. As suddenly as the strange vision had appeared, it disappeared and he was left looking at the three concerned faces of my teammates. 

“Yahaba?” Akaashi asked. “Are you… are you okay?”

Yahaba shook his head again. His thoughts were swimming now, and he couldn’t process any of what was going on. 

“I need some air,” he managed to say before running out of the room.

“Yahaba! Wait!” Akaashi shouted after him. He heard him telling Oikawa to stay with Iwaizumi, but then Yahaba was out of earshot and couldn’t hear anything else except the sound of his feet on the pavement and the blood rushing through his ears.

The room was on the second level of the infirmary, but it was a short run down the stairs to the doors leading outside. As he pushed the doors open to the outside, Yahaba found himself standing in the Solace Garden. He slowed to a steady walk as he took in his surroundings, but found that he couldn’t Right then, he had too much on his mind.

What had happened to him back there? What he’d seen—the four of them on the quad—that had never happened. Before the mission, he hadn’t seen Oikawa in seven years, Akaashi only briefly in passing, and last year was the first time he’d seen Iwaizumi. So why were the four of them together in his vision? 

“Yahaba, there you are.” Akaashi’s voice came from behind him. Yahaba hadn’t realized he’d stopped walking and was just staring blankly at the fountain in front of him. 

“What happened?” he asked. “Why did you run?”

“Why would we be sitting on the quad watching Oikawa and Iwaizumi spar?” Yahaba asked, turning part way around to look at him.

Akaashi looked taken aback by the question. “I… I don’t understand Yahaba. What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about what happened in there, Akaashi,” Yahaba said. “While you were describing your powers… I saw the four of us out on the quad. Iwaizumi and Oikawa were sparing. We were sitting there watching them.”

“That never happened Yahaba,” Akaashi said. “I would know if it had.”

“Right, because of your ime powers,” Yahaba scoffed, sounding a lot harsher than he meant to. Akaashi winced slightly at his rough tone, but didn’t remark about it. 

“Yahaba, I don’t know why you saw that, but that never could’ve happened. It couldn’t have…”

He paused, looking at Yahaba with a curious gaze. His gray-green eyes sparked as he seemed to be thinking intensely. 

“What do you think it was?” Akaashi finally asked.

Yahaba frowned, confused by his question.

“What do you mean?”

“Yahaba, obviously you think there’s something significant about what you saw. And since you don’t have a history of having sight powers, something else has to be going on.” 

Yahaba had no doubt he would’ve crossed his arms at that point, had it not been for one of his arms being in a sling.

“Akaashi, I honestly don’t know what’s going on. All I know is that you started talking about your powers, and then my head started hurting.” Yahaba paused to think through his next words. “Actually, it started hurting a little after I asked you what your powers were. My thoughts had started to get cluttered. I was trying to sort out how I felt about you not telling us about your powers or that you were a kakja, or the fact that you told Iwaizumi and… well, I don’t know what happened. One minute, I was standing there listening to you explain your powers, and the next I’m watching myself sit on the quad with you.”

Akaashi stared at him blankly for a moment before he spoke again. 

“Wait…” he said as he reached out with his good arm and grabbed one of Yahaba’s hands. He closed his eyes in a look of relaxed concentration. They stood silently for a few seconds before Akaashi pulled back.

“That… that isn’t possible,” he gasped.

“Huh?” Yahaba responded..

“What you saw,” Akaashi explained. “It _was_ a memory. A real one. I remember it now too. The four of us had just finished classes for the day, and Oikawa wanted to try out this new move he’d learned in one of her powerless training sessions, which is why he and Iwaizumi were sparring.”

“I don’t remember that much.”

“That’s because your memory doesn’t repair itself as quickly as mine does,” he answered.

“What do you mean ‘repair’?” Yahaba asked skeptically. 

Akaashi reached up to tug on his fingers. The faraway look in his eyes suggested he considering how to answer. Finally, he looked up at Yahaba, making eye contact. A firm look was placed deep within the gray-green color and he knew immediately he probably wasn’t going to like what was going to happen next.

“Do you trust me?” Akaashi asked.

“What kind of question is that?” Yahaba asked as he averted his eyes from Akaashi. 

Yahaba thought about how Akaashi hadn’t told them the truth about himself at the start of the mission. Despite the crunched schedule, that should’ve been something for him to be up front about. But he had told Iwaizumi eventually, though he probably had to wheedle it out of him. Yahaba wondered if Oikawa hadn’t stormed into the room earlier if Akaashi would ever have told the two of them the truth.

A stupid question, really, Yahaba realized. Akaashi had every reason in the world to not tell them the truth about his powers or his lineage. As a ime, one of the three sight powers, he would be a high prize to be exploited—plenty enough reason to not let his powers be well known. And if people knew he was half-kakja, then he’d be shunned from society and no one would ever trust him. Again, perfect excuse not to say anything. 

Yahaba looked back at Akaashi, meeting his eyes once again and seeing the desperate need for him to trust him in them.

“Yahaba, please,” he pleaded. “I think I know what’s wrong, and I can fix it. But I can’t do that without your help.”

Yahaba took a breath and then nodded. 

“Okay,” he said. “I trust you.”

Akaashi nodded silently as he reached up with his hand and placed it gently against the side of Yahaba’s head, close to his left temple. 

“So, now what?” Yahaba asked.

“Now,” Akaashi said quietly. “We remember.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments, kudos, etc. greatly appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> pulveremcomedesligulas.tumblr.com  
> 


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